candy cane cookie bars

i haven't tried these yet but i needed somewhere to save the recipe (i forgot all my login information for allrecipes...)

Candy Cane Cookie Bars:

Dough:
2 cups butter, softened
1 cup powdered sugar
5 cups all purpose flour

Filling:
2-4 oz cream cheese, softened (2 oz will make a firm/chewy/crunchy filling, 4 oz will make it smoother and softer)
18 oz coarsly crushed candy canes

Plus extra powdered sugar for dusting/coating

Preheat oven to 350 degrees

Cream the butter and sugar together, then mix in the flour until everything is blended. If it's a little crumbly, that's okay.

Then mix the crushed candy canes with the cream cheese until it's basically a sticky crunchy mess.

Line a big half sheet pan with heavy duty aluminum foil or parchment (get the nice wide stuff, you want something you can use to lift everything out of the pan), and press/roll about half of the cookie dough into the bottom of the pan. Spread/sprinkle the candy cane mixture evenly over the dough, then sprinkle the remaining dough over top and press everything down nice and firmly.

Bake for about 35 minutes. You don't really want any browning, but the candy cane filling should get melty and bubbly and the dough on top should look dry (not shiny or wet).

Let it cool in the pan for a few minutes and then use the foil or parchment to lift the whole thing out of the pan. Slice into bars while it's still warm, and put a few at a time into a container or bag of powdered sugar, gently turning over to coat. Transfer to a cooling rack and let them cool completely, then coat with powdered sugar again.