Sugar Cookie Bars, or "The one where the bake-aholic could not get any lazier"

Sugar cookies are one of my favorite cookies (I have several favorites). However, while I love the baking and the eating, I am generally (all the time) too lazy for the rolling and the cutting. When I make sugar cookies, I generally just scoop and bake. I have a great cookie cutter collection...my girls use it for peanut butter play-dough.

And really, who is going to turn down a homemade sugar cookie because it is round instead of heart shaped?

Recently I was surfing through various baking blogs and I was stopped in my tracks. A Sugar Cookie Bar! Now all I have to do is dump all my dough on one cookie sheet, flatten it out a little, bake and frost.

And to top it off, when the cyclist saw that pan of frosted goodness, he cut them into bars for me while I lazed about on the couch reading my gossip magazines.

Sugar Cookie Bars
adapted slightly from annemarie-tastebuds.blogspot.com

1 cup butter, softened
2 cups sugar
4 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon almond extract
5 cups flour
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking soda

Cream butter and sugar until fluffy. Add eggs, one at a time, mixing after each egg. Add vanilla and almond and mix well. In a separate bowl, combine the flour, salt and soda. Stir with a whisk to combine. Add dry ingredients to wet mixture and mix just until combined. Spread on a greased baking sheet (half sheet/jelly-roll pan) and bake at 375 for 10-15 minutes (until they're just barely starting to brown). Let cool. Frost and cut into bars.

White Wonder Frosting

8 oz cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup softened butter
4-5 cups powdered sugar
1/2 teaspoon almond extract
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
food coloring (optional)

Blend until smooth.