St. Patty's day is coming up so I thought I'd make some sugar cookies. These are a bit different than the normal cookie-cutter-with-frosting type and the kids and I enjoyed making them!
You can add green coloring to the dough or leave it out- I did both. I made the full recipe so that I could have a lot and play around with it to see what fun types of cookies I could make. The pinwheel shamrock's are super cute, but were a little more difficult to work with, so keep that in mind.
The original sugar cookie recipe was from Allrecipes.com. Surprisingly, I changed nothing! I put the halved version below though as I imagine most people will be content with 2-3 dozen cookies.
I got the idea for the shamrock's here. Darling, huh? I thought so too!
St. Patrick's Day Sugar Cookies
- 3/4 cup butter or shortening
- 1 cup sugar
- 2 eggs
- 1 tsp vanilla
- 2 1/2 cups flour
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp salt
- green food coloring
- green sugar sprinkles
Simple Shamrocks: Divide dough into 4 sections. Very lightly, begin rolling the dough into a thin log. You'll want the log to be about 1" around. Sprinkle a lot of green sugar sprinkles into a shallow dish. {I used half my small container.} Roll logs in the sprinkles individually, making sure they're covered. Lightly wrap in wax paper and refrigerate for about 1 hour.
Cut logs in 1/2" circles. Place 2 circles on a greased cookie sheet, close together so they're touching. Take 2 more circles and overlap those onto the first 2, having them all meet in the middle. Add a small stem to the shamrocks using end scraps.
Bake at 350 degrees for 9-11 minutes.
Pinwheel Shamrocks: Roll out dough on a piece of wax paper into a rectangular shape, leaving it about 1/2- 3/4" thick. {I think mine would have been easier to work with had I made them thicker. I show you my pic so you can see the process, but don't roll it as thin as I did!} Cover with green sprinkles. Using the edge of the wax paper, bring the bottom up and begin rolling. If dough breaks, simply use your fingers to piece it back together. Once log is rolled, wrap it in the wax paper and refrigerate for about 1 hour.
Cut into thin segments, about 1/4" wide. Arrange 3 pinwheels on a greased cookie sheet. Once you have 3 in a triangular shape, mold the dough so it's shaped more like a heart than a circle. I held 2 sides of the circle with my thumb and forefinger while pushing the top down with my other hand. Add a stem.
Bake at 350 degrees for 10-14 minutes.
