Strawberry Shortcake Bars

By srumbel

To get through these weird days, I buried my sorrows in these bars. I am definitely a person that eats my feelings and this past week, my feelings deserved sugar. Our sugar cookie bars are one of my favorite desserts, but I had a lot of strawberries in my fridge that needed to be used before they went bad, so I decided to combine forces.
from sixsistersstuff.com

Ingredients

• Cream layer:
• 1 cup unsalted butter
• 2 cups sugar
• 4 large eggs
• 2 teaspoon vanilla
• 5 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 (8 oz) cream cheese, softened
• 1 cup powdered sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1 (8 oz) Cool Whip (frozen whipped topping)
• 2-3 cups fresh strawberries, diced

Preparation

Step 1

In a large bowl, cream butter and sugar until fluffy. Add eggs, one at a time, mixing after each egg. Mix in vanilla.
In a separate bowl whisk together flour, salt and baking soda. Add to wet mixture and mix just until combined. Spread on a greased, rimmed baking sheet (I use a 13x18x1" pan/cookie sheet). The dough will be just like cookie dough- heavy and sticky- so it’s best to spray your hands with a little nonstick spray and use them to help mold the dough into the pan.
Bake at 375 degrees for 10-15 min, until light golden brown or until a toothpick comes out clean. Let cool completely.

Mix together cream cheese, powdered sugar and vanilla. Beat until smooth, then fold in the Cool Whip and stir well. Spread cream cheese layer over cooled sugar cookie bars. Place in the fridge for about 30 minutes to let the cream layer set up. Top with fresh strawberries, cut, and serve.

I learned that these look the best if you put the strawberries on right before serving, otherwise the juice from the strawberries can tint your cream layer pink. :) Store leftovers in the fridge.

Makes 40-48 bars (depending on how large you cut them).