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Healthy Cinnamon Roll Cookie Bars – soft, chewy & topped with cream cheese frosting. These blondies are MUCH easier (and faster!) to make than regular cinnamon rolls, but they taste the SAME! Sweet, cozy, cinnamony & SO good!! ♡ Cinnamon roll blondies. Low calorie cinnamon sugar cookie bars. Healthy cookie bars recipe easy. Clean eating cinnamon cookie bars recipe. Easy sugar free cream cheese frosting.

Healthy Cinnamon Roll Cookie Bars

© Amy's Healthy Baking
Yields: 16 cookie bars
These sugar cookie bars truly taste like cinnamon rolls! There’s plenty of cinnamon in the chewy blondie base, and the sweet cream cheese frosting adds the perfect flavor complement. These cookie bars will keep for at least 3 days if stored in an airtight container in the refrigerator.
3.67 from 3 votes
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Ingredients 

FOR THE COOKIE BARS

  • 1 ½ cups (180g) white whole wheat flour or gluten-free* flour (measured like this)
  • 2 tsp ground cinnamon
  • ¼ tsp baking soda
  • ¼ tsp salt
  • 2 tbsp (28g) unsalted butter or coconut oil, melted and cooled slightly
  • 2 tbsp (30mL) nonfat milk, room temperature
  • 1 large egg white
  • 2 tsp vanilla extract
  • ¼ cup (60mL) honey
  • 1 tsp liquid stevia (see Notes!)

FOR THE FROSTING

Instructions

  • Preheat the oven to 325°F, and coat an 8”-square pan with nonstick cooking spray.
  • To prepare the cookie bars, whisk together the flour, cinnamon, baking soda, and salt in a medium bowl. In a separate bowl, whisk together butter, milk, egg white, and vanilla extract. Stir in the honey and liquid stevia. Add in the flour mixture, stirring just until incorporated.
  • Using a spatula, gently press the cookie dough into the prepared pan in a thin, even layer. Bake at 325°F for 10-12 minutes or until the center feels firm to the touch. Cool completely to room temperature in the pan.
  • While the cookie bars bake, prepare the frosting. Beat the Greek yogurt, cream cheese, instant pudding mix, cinnamon, and liquid stevia together using an electric hand-held mixer or stand mixer for 2 minutes. Cover the bowl with foil, and chill for at least 2 hours.
  • Once the cookie bars are completely cool, spread the frosting across the top. (I highly recommend using an offset spatula!) Slice them into 16 square bars.

Notes

IMPORTANT MEASURING NOTE – READ BEFORE BEGINNING: It's very important to measure the flour using this method or a kitchen scale. (← That’s the one I own!) Too much flour will make your cookie bars dry, cakey, or crumbly, instead of soft and chewy.
 
FLOUR ALTERNATIVES: Whole wheat pastry flour, regular whole wheat flour, or all-purpose flour may be substituted for white whole wheat flour.
 
CINNAMON NOTE: This is my favorite cinnamon! It tastes stronger, richer, and sweeter. I buy it online here. It’s really inexpensive and affordable, and I now use it in just about all of my baking recipes.
 
MILK ALTERNATIVES: Any milk may be substituted for the nonfat milk.
 
LIQUID STEVIA NOTES + ALTERNATIVES: For the best results, I recommend using the same liquid stevia that I do. (Many stevia brands and products have different sweetness levels, so they’re not necessarily 1-for-1 substitutes for one another!) I buy it online here because that’s the best price I’ve found, and you’ll use it all of these recipes of mine too.
 
You cannot substitute additional honey for the liquid stevia in the cookie bars because the dough require a precise balance of wet and dry ingredients. However, you may substitute ¾ cup (144g) of coconut sugar (or brown sugar or granulated sugar, if you aren’t concerned about keeping these cookies clean eating friendly) for both the honey AND stevia — but the cookies will appear “speckled” if using coconut sugar because it doesn’t dissolve as well.
 
If you prefer not to use the liquid stevia in the frosting, then substitute 1 teaspoon of this powdered stevia OR 2-3 tablespoons of Truvia or regular confectioners' style sugar (powdered sugar).
 
HONEY ALTERNATIVES: Pure maple syrup or agave may be substituted for the honey.
 
GREEK YOGURT NOTE: I’ve found that FAGE plain nonfat Greek yogurt works the best when making frosting because it’s thicker than many other brands, which really helps with the frosting’s consistency. (It also has less of a yogurt “tang” to its flavor!)
 
CREAM CHEESE NOTES: Neufchâtel cream cheese (also called reduced fat cream cheese or ⅓-less fat cream cheese), Greek yogurt cream cheese, and fat free cream cheese will all work. Regular cream cheese works well too. Whichever option you use, make sure it’s well softened for the best creamy frosting consistency.
 
I do not recommend substituting tub-style cream cheese or whipped cream cheese. They will change the consistency of your frosting.
 
INSTANT PUDDING MIX NOTES: Many boxes of sugar-free, fat-free instant pudding mix have 4 servings per box. Since you only need 1 serving, you’ll use a quarter of the box (not one full box!). You just need the dry instant pudding mix — don’t prepare it according to the package directions!
 
If you can’t find sugar-free, fat-free cheesecake instant pudding mix, then substitute sugar-free, fat-free vanilla instant pudding mix instead.
 
Instant pudding mix is special because its thickening properties are activated when it’s cold or at room temperature — not when heated (like with cornstarch and regular “cook-and-serve” pudding mix).
 
Unfortunately, there isn’t a great substitute for the instant pudding mix. I’ve tried using xanthan gum, and while it does thicken the frosting, it also adds a weird texture. Regular “cook-and-serve” pudding mix and cornstarch won’t work because those require heat to activate their thickening properties, and heating the Greek yogurt is not a good idea.
 
You can omit the instant pudding mix, but you’ll need to increase the liquid stevia (and only mix the ingredients together until just incorporated — not for 2 full minutes!). Without the instant pudding mix, the frosting will be a bit runny and may slightly drip down the sides of your cookie bars.
 
You can also use this cream cheese frosting recipe (#1) of mine instead (no pudding mix required!)
 
GLUTEN-FREE OPTION: Use a store-bought gluten-free flour blend with xanthan gum that measures cup-for-cup like wheat-based flours. (I like this one from Bob's Red Mill!) Alternatively, use certified gluten-free oat flour (like this). For either gluten-free option, measure it like this.
 
HOW TO STORE: Store these cookie bars in an airtight container in the refrigerator. They should keep for at least 3 days (if not longer!)
 
{gluten-free, clean eating option, low fat, lower sugar}
DID YOU MAKE THIS RECIPE?I'd love to hear what you think of it in a comment below! If you take a picture, tag @amys.healthy.baking on Instagram or use the hashtag #amyshealthybaking.