Do you want the luck of the Irish this St. Patrick’s Day? These St Patrick’s Day Sugar Cookies are so delicious and festive! Made with traditional cookie ingredients, you’re about to learn how to make something extra extravagant!
I used to buy cookies at the store every year in honor of each and every holiday. When I started learning how to make cookies, Shamrock Sugar Cookies were the first ones I wanted to master. They are simple to make, but really they are super green and festive, which is why I love them so much!
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❤️ Why You’ll Love This Recipe
- Save yourself some money – With the rising cost of baked goods, you can make these st. patrick’s day cookies and save yourself some money.
- Fun St. Patrick’s Day cookies – Why should this Irish holiday be left out? Make these green cookies and celebrate this fun holiday.
- A little green in your life – Instead of wearing green this St. Patrick’s Day, you can eat a fun cookie that is colored green!
🛒Ingredients
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- all-purpose flour
- baking powder
- salt
- butter, softened
- sugar
- egg
- almond extract
- vanilla extract
- Powdered sugar or flour, for rolling
- Green icing
- Green sanding sugar or green sugar sprinkles
- Gold sprinkles
See the recipe card below for quantities.
🔪 How to Make St. Patrick’s Day Cookies
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Prepare a baking sheet with parchment paper.
Whisk together dry ingredients: flour, baking powder, and salt. Set aside.
In a mixing bowl, cream butter and sugar until creamy and light. Add egg, almond extract, and vanilla extract. Mix well. Slowly add the flour mixture to the wet ingredients and mix until combined. The dough may be a little crumbly.
Turn out the dough onto a surface sprinkled with powdered sugar or flour. Press into a ball and then roll out to ¼ inch thickness. Use cookie cutters to create shapes. Carefully lift shaped cookies to the baking sheet. Using a flat spatula is recommended to help the cookies maintain their shape.
Bake cookies for 7 to 9 minutes. Do not brown the cookies. Allow cookies to cool for at least 20 minutes on the baking sheet before carefully removing them to a wire rack.
After cooling, decorate as desired. Allow icing to dry before storing in an airtight container between layers of parchment paper.
To use canned frosting as royal icing as I did. Remove the foil seal and place the can of frosting into the microwave for 30 seconds to one minute. Stir. If the frosting is smooth enough to pour or spread with a spoon it is ready to use.
Smooth the frosting onto the cookie with the back of the spoon or pour over the cookies on a parchment sheet for easy cleanup.
Add sprinkles as desired.
Be sure to allow the frosting to harden before moving to an airtight container.
📝Variations
Are you looking for a way to make these cookies a little different? Check out some of these variation ideas.
- Cookie recipe – you can use this cookie recipe for other types of cookies! You can make birthday, Valentine’s, or even Christmas cookies with this dough.
- Change up the frosting – add a different colored frosting to these cookies! You can make the frosting dark green, light green – or even white!
- Kid friendly – let the kids decorate their own cookies. Nothing turns out better than a cookie that a kid decorated. Let them have a ton of fun with the decorating part.
Check out this Leprechaun Hat Cake to make right alongside these cookies.
🥄 Equipment
- cookie sheets
- parchment paper or cooking spray
- shamrock cookie cutter
- mixing bowl
- large bowl
- electric mixer
🥫 Storage
Store these cookies in an airtight container at room temperature for up to one week. If you are stacking them in a container, use a piece of wax paper to prevent them from sticking to one another.
If you’re going to freeze these cut-out sugar cookies, I recommend freezing this easy sugar cookie recipe unfrosted.
💭 Tips
- In order to keep St Patricks Day Sugar Cookies soft, you can store them with a slice of bread. The bread absorbs moisture, which leaves the cookies moist and delicious, ready to be eaten at any time.
- Use confectioners’ sugar or flour when you roll dough for these cookies to prevent them from sticking.
- Make the sugar cookie dough ahead of time and allow it to sit in the fridge for up to 24 hours, be sure to wrap it tightly in plastic wrap if you are planning to wait for more than a couple of hours.
- You can also use a greased cookie sheet instead of parchment paper to bake these cookies.
- If you cannot find green icing at your local grocery store, white icing can be used with green food coloring to get your desired icing color.
- I used a royal icing hack to make the frosting for these cookies, but you can also use this royal icing recipe, and color it green.
⁉️ FAQ
Do you have questions about this recipe? Here are the answers to the most commonly asked questions.
Don’t have a cookie-cutter of a shamrock? Create a stencil out of cardboard and then use that to cut out your cookie dough using a butter knife.
You can use these directions to start decorating these St. Patrick’s Day cookies! As you learn better designs and decorations, you can use those skills to decorate these cookies!
The good news is that you can add sprinkles to cookies before or after baking. If you add the sprinkles after, you’ll have to make sure the frosting is wet. The sprinkles need something to stick to, otherwise, they’ll fall right off the cookies.
🍽 More St. Patrick’s Day Recipes
Do you enjoy St. Patrick’s Day? Try these delicious recipes:
🧾St Patrick’s Day Decorated cookies
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St. Patrick’s Day Sugar Cookies
Ingredients
- 3 cups all purpose flour
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 1 2 sticks cup butter, softened
- 1 cup sugar
- 1 egg
- ½ teaspoon almond extract
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- Powdered sugar or flour for rolling
Decorating
- 1 can green frosting
- Green sanding sugar
- Gold sprinkles
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Prepare a baking sheet with parchment paper.
- Whisk together dry ingredients: flour, baking powder, and salt. Set aside.
- In a mixing bowl, blend the butter and sugar until creamy and light. Add egg, almond extract, and vanilla extract. Mix well. Slowly add dry ingredients and mix until combined. Dough may be a little crumbly.
- Turn out the dough onto a surface sprinkled with powdered sugar or flour. Press into a ball and then roll out to ¼ inch thickness. Use cookie cutters to create shapes. Carefully lift shaped cookies to the baking sheet. Using a flat spatula is recommended to help the cookies maintain their shape.
- Bake cookies for 7 to 9 minutes. Do not brown the cookies. Allow cookies to cool for at least 20 minutes on the baking sheet before carefully removing to a cooling rack.
- After cooling, decorate as desired. Allow icing to dry before storing in an airtight container between layers of parchment paper.
Notes
