Bring the spirit of St. Patrick's Day to your kitchen and bake up some Irish luck, with these charming shamrock sugar cookies, perfect for celebrating March 17th! Made with our all-time favorite soft sugar cookie recipe, these tender shamrock sugar cookies are then coated in a festive green icing. Sláinte!
Ingredients
Shamrock Sugar Cookies
¾cupsbutter, softened
1cupwhite sugar
2eggs
1teaspoonvanilla extract
2 ½cupsall-purpose flour
1 ½teaspoonsbaking soda
½teaspoonsalt
Green Icing
1cuppowdered sugar
Green food color, see notes
2-3tablespoonswater or lemon juice, see notes
Instructions
In a large bowl, cream together the butter, sugar, eggs, and vanilla using an electric mixer.
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
In a medium-sized bowl whisk the flour, baking soda, and salt. Add to the wet ingredients and mix till combined.
Make a ball out of the dough, wrap it in parchment paper, and store it in your fridge for at least 1 hour or overnight.
Preheat oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit. 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 baking, placing them into 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.
Green Icing
In a small bowl, add the powdered sugar and a few drops of food coloring. Then add 2 tablespoons of water or lemon juice and mix well. If you'd like a thinner icing, add a little more water.
Notes
The amount of powdered sugar/ liquid in the ingredient list is enough to decorate the cookies lightly with frosting. If you want them fully covered, you will need to triple the amounts.Lemon juice is a tasty alternative to using water and gives the cookies a slightly tangy taste.The white frosting in the pictures is simply powdered sugar + water with no natural dye added.To make natural green food dye, blend some spinach in a food processor or blender and then squeeze out the liquid. You will need approximately two teaspoons of spinach juice to achieve the color in the photos. Don't worry, you can't taste the spinach at all.