Shamrock Cookies are the best easy Saint Patrick's Day Dessert. Make them with St. Patricks day cookie cutters for a fun treat!
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St Patrick's Cookies
Easy to make and absolutely adorable - these Shamrock Cookies are the perfect St. Patrick's Day dessert!
Unlike other complicated sugar cookies, these cookies are made with only 6 simple ingredients that you probably have in your fridge and pantry.
Plus, you don't even have to frost them! Just use food coloring and some colored sugar.
These are perfect for any Saint Patrick's Day Party!
Why You'll Love these Cookies
I'm biased, but I think these are the best sugar cookies. My mom and Gram have made these cookies every year for every holiday! These cookies are:
- Crispy on the outside and soft in the center
- Super easy to make
- Adorable and great for decorating
- Stay fresh for a week!
Ingredients
To make these cut out shamrock cookies you will only need 7 basic ingredients.
- granulated sugar - We use granulated white sugar. We can't recommend any substitutes.
- softened salted butter - We only bake with salted butter. NEVER margarine! Leave the butter out for 1-2 hours before baking OR pop it in the microwave in 10 second increments. DON'T melt your butter! It should be bendy and pliable, not hard.
- an egg
- milk - We have made this recipe with heavy cream, regular milk, and lactose free milk - all work!
- vanilla extract -shhhh, don't tell baking purists.. you can use imitation 😉 Vanilla extract is so expensive!
- all purpose flour
- baking powder-make sure your baking powder is fresh!
You can find substitutions for all of these ingredients below in the green shaded substitutions box.
Substitutions
Cookie Cutters: You can use this recipe with any cookie cutters you like. We use both big and small ones, and this recipe is great for any holiday.
Food Coloring: You could add a few drops of food coloring to this dough to dye it. This is the food coloring we like.
Sprinkles: Use any sprinkles you like on these cookies!
Butter: We always use salted butter when baking. You can sub unsalted butter but it won't be as tasty.
Doubling: This recipe can easily be doubled, but it makes 6 dozen as is - so that's a lot of cookies if you're doubling it!
Gluten Free: We haven't tried making these gluten free, but I think it might work with 1:1 flour. If you try it, let us know.
Butter/Sugar: We can't offer substitutions for butter or sugar in this recipe. I don't recommend swapping with any ingredients.
St Patricks Day Cookies Tools
There are a few tools that will help you to make the best sugar cookies ever!
Rolling Pin-I HIGHLY recommend this rolling pin. It has little wheels on the side that allow you to control the thickness of the dough. No guessing or rolling some cookies out too thin or too thick.
Parchment Paper-I always bake all cookies on parchment paper. They never stick or break!
Colored Sugar- Any sprinkles or colored sugar will work with these cookies. These are our favorite brand.
Food Coloring- This is the only food coloring we recommend. This recipe doesn't require food coloring but you can dye the dough if you'd like!
Piping Bag (only for icing) If you want to ice the edges of these cookies you can use a piping bag or even a plastic ziploc bag with the corner cut very small.
St Patricks Day Cookies Cutters
There are many different options on Amazon for Saint Patrick's Day Cookie Cutters. Michael's and Hobby Lobby also have options! Here are some of my favorites:
- Clover Cookie Set - this is what I bought and recommend. It has 3 different sized clovers + other St. Patrick's Day shapes.
- 10 Piece St. Patrick's Day Set - these are very cute but unless you plan to ice them, it might be hard to distinguish the shapes.
- Single Shamrock Cookie Cutter - Another great option, but for a dollar more you can get more shapes, so I think that's a better deal!
- If you don't have cookie cutters these Mint Chocolate Chip Cookies are a delicious St. Patrick's Day Treat!
How to Make St Patrick's Day Cookies
- In a bowl, cream softened butter & sugar.
- Add egg, milk, vanilla extract, and food coloring.
- Stir in flour and baking powder until combined.
- Roll the dough to ⅙ inch thickness.
- Use your favorite cut out shapes and place them on a greased or parchment lined baking sheet. Add sprinkles before baking.
- Bake for 5-8 minutes until lightly browned on edges
St Patrick's Day Sugar Cookies Tips
- Get a good rolling pin: It's super easy to control the thickness of your dough with your rolling pin. You can roll the cookies thicker for softer cookies or thinner for crispier cookies.
- If your dough is sticky: You probably over softened your butter. Put your dough in the fridge to chill for 30 minutes-1 hour and it will be fine to roll out!
- Gram's Cookie Baking Tip: Add a piece of scrap dough to your cookie sheet. You can lift this scrap piece to check if the bottom of your cookies is golden brown rather than damaging one of your perfect cut out cookies!
- Watch when baking! These go from perfectly golden brown to burnt quickly!
- Measure your ingredients correctly - It is super important to measure your ingredients correctly, specifically the flour! Check out this tutorial on how to measure flour correctly.
- Use flour when rolling out the dough. Make sure to flour your work surface and the top of the dough/rolling pin when rolling out the cookie dough. Otherwise the dough will stick/be difficult to transfer the cut out cookies to a baking sheet
How to Decorate St Patricks Day Sugar Cookies
You can decorate these cookies however you'd like. Here are some suggestions
- Food Coloring - You can keep the cookies white and add green sprinkles, or color them with food coloring.
- Colored Sugar - We used classic colored sugar on these cookies
- Sprinkles - You can use regular sprinkles on these cookies
- Royal Icing- We don't use royal icing but you can! Here's a link to a royal icing recipe.
- Powdered Sugar Icing: Mix powdered sugar and milk until it's a thick consistency. You can dye it with food coloring and use a piping bag (or ziploc bag) to ice. 1 cup of powdered sugar to 1-2 tablespoons of milk. Add more milk until it's thick but only add a TINY bit because it gets thin quickly!
Storage
How long do sugar cookies stay fresh? : You can store these cookies recipe for up to a week in an airtight container at room temperature.
Freezing: You can freeze these cookies for up to 3 months in an airtight container. Thaw completely before enjoying.
Freezing Cookie Dough: We don't recommend freezing this cookie dough.
St Patrick's Day Cookies FAQs
Sugar cookies stay fresh for about a week in an airtight container
A sugar cookie is typically sweeter and softer while shortbread cookies are drier and crumbly.
The best way to decorate shamrock cookies is with food coloring and colored sugar or sprinkles! It's way easier than frosting them.
There is no way to make shamrock cookies without a cookie cutter. You need a cookie cutter to get that shamrock shape!
Decorate sugar cookies cold if you're going to frost them. Make sure your sugar cookies have cooled completely before you decorate them otherwise your frosting will melt. If you're just decorating cookies with colored sugar you can put the colored sugar or sprinkles on before baking.
Add sprinkles before baking to make sure they stick to your cookies!
The easiest way to decorate sugar cookies is to use colored sugar. You can dye the sugar cookies to make them more festive. You can frost them but it's a lot of work!
More like these St Patricks Day Cookies
- Mint Chocolate Cookies
- Banana Drop Cookies
- Cut Out Sugar Cookies
- Peanut Butter Blossom Cookies
- Best Snickerdoodle Cookies
St Patricks Day Sugar Cookies
Ingredients
- 1 cup salted butter softened (2 sticks)
- 1 cup white sugar
- 1 egg
- 3 tablespoons milk
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 3 cups all purpose flour
- 1 ½ teaspoons baking powder
- 4 drops green food coloring optional - may need more
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 400 and prepare a greased or parchment lined baking sheet.
- In a bowl cream softened butter & sugar.
- Add egg, milk and vanilla extract. Add food coloring if using.
- Stir in flour and baking powder until combined.
- On a floured surface, roll the dough to ¼ - ⅙ inch thickness. We recommend this rolling pin for perfectly rolled cookies.
- Use your favorite cut out shapes to cut out the cookies. Use a thin metal spatula to transfer cookies to a greased or parchment lined baking sheet. Sprinkle with colored sugar or sprinkles if you like.
- Bake for 5-8 minutes until browned on edges
- Cookie Baking Tip: Add a piece of scrap dough to your cookie sheet. You can lift this scrap piece to check if the bottom of your cookies is golden brown rather than damaging one of your perfect cut out cookies!
- Cool the cookies on a sheet for 3-4 minutes until they’re firm, then move to a wire cooling rack to finish cooling
- Store in an airtight container for up to 2 weeks for freshness!
- Note: Once you roll the dough/put your cookies on the sheet - gather your scraps, form into a ball and re roll. Don’t waste!
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