Vanilla bean sugar cookie bars

I love vanilla.  Especially vanilla bean.  I'll take a scoop of good vanilla ice cream any day over chocolate.  So I was excited to see this recipe.  I made these yesterday and the kids told me that they're so good, I need to make them every day.  I told them that they're crazy, so Josh said he'd settle for once a month.  Ha!  Well, I don't know if they're THAT good, but they are really good.  I was totally going to take a picture of mine with a little Johnny Jump Up flower on it, like this one but the stupid, stupid rabbits ate all of my flowers.  : (  Stupid rabbits.
I didn't buy half & half so I just used milk for the frosting, which worked fine.

Vanilla Bean Sugar Cookie Bars with Vanilla Bean Frosting

Yield: About 20 bars

Ingredients

Bars
• 2 1/2 cups (354g) all-purpose flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 10 Tbsp (5 oz) unsalted butter, softened slightly*
• 1 cup (215g) granulated sugar
• Seeds of 1 small vanilla bean
• 1 large egg
• 1 large egg white
• 3 Tbsp sour cream
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
Frosting
• 1/2 cup (4 oz) butter (I like to use 1/4 cup salted and 1/4 cup unsalted)
• Seeds of 1 small vanilla bean
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• 2 cups (240g) powdered sugar
• 2 Tbsp half and half

Directions

• For the bars:
• Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Butter a 13" x 9" baking dish, set aside.
• In a mixing bowl whisk together flour, baking powder and salt for 20 seconds, set aside.
• In the bowl of an electric stand mixer, whip together butter, sugar and vanilla bean seeds until pale and fluffy. Stir in egg then egg white. Add sour cream and vanilla and mix until combined. Slowly add dry mixture and mix just until combined.
• Spray hands with non-stick cooking spray and gently press mixture into prepared baking dish. Bake until toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean and bars are set, about 15 - 16 minutes. Cool completely, then frost and cut into squares.
• For the frosting:
• In the bowl of an electric stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, whip butter with vanilla bean seeds until light and fluffy. Mix in vanilla, powdered sugar and half and half and mix until light an fluffy.
• *You want the butter to still be cool, this is so the dough isn't too warm and sticky to work with when pressing into the baking dish.
• Recipe and photo source: Cooking Classy