Shamrock Sugar Cookies ☘️
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These Shamrock Sugar Cookies are made with my all-time favorite soft sugar cookie recipe. The frosting is tinted bright green with an easy to make all-natural food dye. Happy St. Patty's Day!
Happy (almost) St. Patrick's Day! ☘️☘️☘️
These shamrock sugar cookies perfect for celebrating all things green and Irish. The cookies are sweet and soft and they'll disappear from the plate before you know it.
You'll find the Shamrock Sugar Cookies dough easy to roll out and it puffs up but doesn't spread out when you bake it so it will hold the shamrock shape – or whatever shape you decide to cut these into.
To make the icing for these Shamrock Sugar Cookies we've gone the natural route (it's easy!) and made our own green food dye – more on that below. But you can also use green food dye that is in your pantry if you prefer. Either option will make delicious Shamrock Sugar Cookies!
Here's what you need. Are you ready for it? You need … spinach.
Yep, that's right. That's all. A few handfuls of spinach and your celebrating the Irish day will get a whole lot greener. Naturally.
You're going to put the spinach in your high-powered blender or food processor and blend it until it is smooth. If you're using your blender, you'll need to use the plunger to get it going at first. If you are using your food processor, you'll need to stop and scrape down the sides a few times.
Spinach has a ton of natural liquid so you don't need to add any water when you're blending it. Once it's turned into a dark green slippery liquid, pour it through a fine-mesh sieve to remove the pulp.
That's it!
My friend, you've just made your very own natural green food color.
Shamrock Sugar Cookies Recipe
Ingredients
Shamrock Sugar Cookies
- ¾ cups butter (softened)
- 1 cup white sugar
- 2 eggs
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 2 ½ cups all-purpose flour
- 1 ½ teaspoons baking soda
- ½ teaspoon salt
All-Natural Green Frosting
- 2 cups spinach
- 1 cup powdered sugar
- 2-3 tablespoons natural green food dye/ water/ lemon juice (see notes)
Instructions
- In a large bowl, cream together the butter, sugar, eggs, and vanilla using an electric mixer. In a medium-sized bowl whisk the flour, baking soda, and salt. Add to the wet ingredients and mix till combined.¾ cups butter, 1 cup white sugar, 2 eggs, 1 teaspoon vanilla extract, 2 ½ cups all-purpose flour, 1 ½ teaspoons baking soda, ½ teaspoon salt
- Make a ball out of the dough, wrap in plastic, and store in your fridge for at least 1 hour or overnight.
- Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Roll out half the dough to just under ½ inch between 2 pieces of parchment paper. Cut out shamrock shapes using a 3 ½ inch cookie cutter and transfer the cookies to baking sheets. Note: the cookies will fill 4 half-size sheet pans. If you don't have enough cookie sheets, bake one batch and then wait until the cookie sheet is completely cool before placing the next batch of cookies on it. Keep the cookie dough as cold as possible before you bake them, placing them back in the fridge for a few minutes on the baking sheets if they become soft.
- Bake on cookie sheets for 6-8 minutes, or until lightly browned on the bottom. Remove from oven and cool completely before frosting.
For the all-natural green frosting:
- Place the spinach in your high-powered blender or food processor and blend until smooth, scraping down the sides as needed. Place a fine mesh sieve over a bowl and strain the pulp from the liquid. You will be left with about ¼ cup of green food dye.2 cups spinach
- Place the powdered sugar in a small bowl and add water or lemon juice and some of the green dye and mix to combine. You may have to play with the amounts a little as you will need a lot more natural dye than if you were using artificial food coloring. To achieve the color in the pictures, you will need approximately 2 teaspoons. To frost the whole cookie, you want a thinner frosting. To decorate the cookies with designs, you'll want the frosting thicker. Add more powdered sugar/ liquid to achieve the exact look you want.1 cup powdered sugar, 2-3 tablespoons natural green food dye/ water/ lemon juice
Notes
Nutrition
We have thoroughly tested this recipe for accuracy. However, individual results may vary. See our full recipe disclosure here.
