St. Patrick’s Day Cookies: the easy, fun recipe for shamrock cookies

St. Patrick's Day cookies are a fun, easy recipe you can make to celebrate Paddy's Day this year. With delicious crisp edges, these soft, chewy cookies are festive versions of the classic sugar cookie recipe that are cut out with a shamrock cookie cutter and decorated with homemade royal icing.

Making St. Patrick's Day cookies is a fun activity for kids, and is a great way to get your little ones involved in the kitchen. They'll love cutting and decorating these tasty sweet treats. Shamrock cookies are a perfect festive sweet treat you can set out for your friends and family this St. Patrick's Day.

St. Patrick's Day Cookie Ingredients

Shamrock cookies are essentially sugar cookies. You'll need the same ingredients you'd use to make classic sugar cookies like flour, sugar, baking powder, milk, egg, and a little vanilla to flavor the dough.

For the royal icing, you'll need powdered sugar, corn syrup, milk, and your favorite flavored extract. This recipe calls for vanilla but you can use almond, orange, lemon, or anything you like.

How to Make St. Patrick's Day Cookies

It's easy to make St. Patrick's Day cookies at home. Gather your ingredients and tools, and let's get started!

Making the Sugar Cookie Dough 

Grab a bowl and sift the flour, salt, and baking powder together. Whisk the dry ingredients to combine. In a separate bowl, beat the butter and sugar until the mixture becomes fluffy. Mix in the egg, milk, and vanilla until smooth. Mix the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients bit by bit. Make the dough into a disc shape, then cover in cling film.

Put it in the fridge for at least an hour, up to overnight. This will help the cookies keep their shape while they're baking and give them a better flavor.

Roll Out the Dough 

Once it's time to start baking, line two baking trays with parchment paper and heat your oven to 350F. Roll the dough out onto a floured work surface. Aim for 1/8-inch thickness for your cookies. Cut out the cookies using a shamrock cookie cutter.

Place them onto the prepared trays and freeze for 10 minutes. Again, don't skip this last step as it will prevent your cookies from spreading too much when they're in the oven.

Baking the Sugar Cookies

Bake your shamrock cookies at 350°F for 8 to 10 minutes, or until lightly golden. Set them on a wire rack to cool completely.

How to Make Royal Icing

To make the royal icing, start by mixing the sugar, corn syrup, milk, and vanilla extract in a bowl. Mix in as much food coloring as you'd like, more for a richer green color, less for a paler green. Put one-third of the icing into a piping bag.

Assembling St. Patrick's Day Cookies

Line the edge of the cooking with icing. Add one tablespoon to the rest of the icing to thin it out. This is your flooding icing. Place the icing into a piping bag. Flood the center of the cookies with the icing. Leave the icing to set before serving.

Tips for Making the Best Shamrock Cookies 

Make sure you don't skip refrigerating the dough! It will help stop your cookies from spreading too much when they bake.

Don't overmix your cookie dough.

If needed, add a little extra milk to the royal icing until it reaches your desired consistency. You'll initially need it to be firm enough to create a border so that when you flood the thinner icing, it doesn't spill over the sides.

If desired, you can divide the icing up into separate bowls and experiment with adding different amounts of food coloring so you can decorate your cookies with different shades of green.

St. Patrick's Day Cookie Variations

Break out your cookie cutters to make fun variations on St. Patrick's Day cookies. In addition to shamrocks, you can also make leprechauns, pots of gold, and leprechaun hats. 

One other fantastic variation to try is to use buttercream frosting instead of royal icing.

You can also make your St. Patrick's Day cookies into sandwich cookies and fill them with Nutella, jam, or buttercream.

How to Store St. Patrick's Day Cookies

Place any leftover cookies in an airtight container and store them at room temperature for up to 4 days.

For longer storage, these cookies will keep in the freezer for up to 3 months.

Instructions

Sift the flour, salt, and baking powder into a bowl. Whisk to combine.

In a second bowl, add the butter and start to soften it.

Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy.

Beat in the egg, milk, and vanilla.

Slowly beat the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients.

Form the dough into a disc, cover in cling film, then refrigerate for 1 hour, up to overnight.

Preheat your oven to 350F. Line two baking trays with parchment paper. Lightly flour a work surface. Roll out the dough to 1/8-inch thickness.

Punch out shapes using a shamrock cookie cutter.

Place them onto the trays and freeze for 10 minutes.

Bake for 8 to 10 minutes, or until lightly golden. Set on a wire rack to cool completely.

Whisk sugar, corn syrup, milk, and vanilla extract in a bowl. Add food coloring.

Place 1/3 of the icing into a piping bag. Line the edge of the cooking with icing.

Whisk 1 tablespoon into the rest of the icing. Place the icing into a piping bag. Flood the center of the cookies with the icing.

Go on decorating the shamrock cookies as you prefer.

Leave the icing to set before serving.

Serve and enjoy!

Notes

Use room temperature ingredients to make your St. Patrick's Day cookies. This will help prevent you from overmixing the dough and make sure your cookies come out with the best texture.