We love St. Patrick’s Day in this house! And what better way to celebrate than cooking up some traditional Irish fare such as fried cabbage or baking some yummy St. Patrick’s Day Sugar Cookies?!? These sugar cookies are soft, buttery, do not spread in the oven, and are extremely easy to handle. We also have icing that is smooth, simple to apply, and is delicious.
St. Patrick’s Day is a global celebration of Irish culture celebrated on the death date of Saint Patrick, the patron saint of Ireland. The shamrock has been a symbol associated with Ireland for centuries and was considered a sacred plant. It represented the arrival of spring.
St. Patrick’s Day Sugar Cookie Cutters
We love to use the shamrock cookie cutters for our St. Patrick’s Day cookies but there are many others to choose from. Here are a few that are really cute:
- Ann Clark – This 5 piece set features shamrocks, a four leaf clover, a rainbow, and a beer mug. Made from alloy steel and certified food safe, they create nice, clean cuts. Keep in mind though that these are not dishwasher safe so you will have to wash them by hand.
- Moon Boat – This 10 piece set features shamrocks, a gold coin, leprechaun hat, pot of gold, beer mug, horseshoe, flag, and rainbow. Made from stainless steel, they must be hand washed as well as they are not dishwasher safe.
- R&M International – This 5 piece set features shamrocks, an Irish derby hat, pot of gold, and a leprechaun. Also made of steel and hand wash only, what is different about this set is that the leprechaun is the entire body, not just a face.
St. Patrick’s Day Sugar Cookie Process
To make these cookies, we use our delicious sugar cookie and icing recipe. Following are a few of the highlights from that recipe, but if you would like a thorough step by step approach, please see our full post.
Prepare Dough
After the dough comes together, split it into two equal parts.
Roll Out Dough
Roll each half of dough with a rolling pin in between two sheets of wax paper. Form a disc that is about 1/4 inch thick. (Rolling in-between wax paper helps to cut down on extra flour being incorporated into the dough.) This is important to roll out prior to refrigerating so that the dough is ready to be cut as soon as it is done chilling. Dough that has been chilled is hard to roll out and tends to crack. Simply roll out directly on wax paper or parchment paper and pop them in the refrigerator. Save room in your fridge and stack them if you would like since each half is covered on the top and bottom.
Refrigerate
Refrigerate the dough for at least one hour. Chilling the dough helps the cookies not spread while baking and makes the dough easier to handle. If not refrigerated, the dough will be too soft and sticky to cut out shapes.
Cut Out Shapes
When cutting out shapes, try to keep your cuts as close together as possible to maximize the number of shapes per roll. Re-roll your scraps and cut again until all the dough has been used up.
Bake
Bake the cookies for 8-11 minutes depending on size. I find that my 4-inch 1/4 inch thick cookies take 10 minutes to bake while smaller cookies take 8 or 9 minutes. Let the cookies cool for a few minutes on the cookie sheet before transferring to a wire rack. They need a few minutes to firm up so that they will not break as you try to move them.
Decorate
Be sure cookies are fully cooled before icing with our recipe below. Feel free to add sprinkles and other decor to your cookies as well!
St. Patrick’s Day Sugar Cookie Icing Process
I love this icing for our sugar cookies because it not only tastes amazing but it is so easy to work with too!
- Prepare icing – Mix all the ingredients until smooth. It will be on the thicker side and you can adjust the consistency by either adding a little milk to thin it or confectioners’ sugar to thicken. I use the thicker consistency to outline my cookies and then thin it with a little milk to flood the interiors.
- Food coloring – When adding color to your icing, I recommend using gel coloring and a light hand. You can always add more coloring if it is not dark enough!
- Squeeze bottles – Be sure to keep the icing covered so it doesn’t harden as you work. I use squeeze bottles to apply all my icing and keep it pliable the entire time. Either spoon the icing into the bottles or use funnels. You can also use piping bags to apply the icing when finer precision is required.
- Make enough icing – If you will be using a lot of colors, I would suggest doubling the icing recipe to ensure you have enough. Better to be safe!
St. Patrick’s Day Sugar Cookie Decorating Process
Ok, being completely honest, the icing and decorating can take a long time depending on how detailed you would like your cookies to be and how many cookies you make. These are a few tips for making the process go a little smoother and faster.
- Plan – Plan out your decorating process before mixing your colors. Try to get a general idea of what designs you would like to make and how much of each color you think you will need.
- Divide and color – After planning, divide sections of icing into bowls and mix in your food coloring. I like to make two sets of each color. One is thicker for outlining and the other is a wee bit thinner (add a splash of milk) to flood the interiors. For these cookies, I used white, Pastel green, and Kelly green. Keep in mind that colors will darken as they dry, especially with black. Black tends to look like a dark blue or purple-brown when applying but will dry as a true black. After colors are mixed, using a spoon or funnel, pour the icing into your piping bags or squeeze bottles.
- Outline then flood – I start by outlining all my cookies and then flooding. After flooding, you will need to wait 2-3 hours before applying finer details. I use piping bags/tips and the squeeze bottles to apply the details depending on how exact I need to be.
- Add other decor – Add any other sprinkles or festive toppings you would like.
- Let icing dry – This icing should dry for 24 hours before storing cookies. I let my fully iced cookies sit on the counter overnight to dry.
How do I store unused Icing?
If you are waiting to decorate the cookies and need to store the icing, cover tightly and refrigerate for up to 3 days. When ready to use, bring to room temperature and massage icing to restore consistency. We do not recommend freezing unused icing.
St. Patrick’s Day Sugar Cookie Gift Packaging
I love to give these adorable cookies as gifts. To do this, I store each cookie in its own cellophane bag. They come in different sizes and are perfect for protecting the cookie. The ones I use are self sealing but you can dress up the bag by adding your own custom stickers printed at home or use these adorable pre-made Shamrock stickers.
Tips
- Measure correctly – I highly recommend using a kitchen scale when baking. Because baking measurements need to be exact, using a scale helps to measure as precisely as possible. It quite honestly was a complete game changer for me when I first started using one! I would be lost without it now.
- Room temperature is important! When certain ingredients (eggs, cream cheese, butter, etc.) are listed as room temperature, there are scientific reasons behind this. At room temperature, these ingredients blend together better and result in a smoother batter. Ultimately, you will end up with a better final product!
- To soften butter quickly, slice into small pieces and let sit on the counter while you gather the rest of your ingredients. Room temperature butter may be cooler than you think. You will know it is ready when you press your finger into it, it leaves an indent but does not sink into the butter.
- Bake same sizes together – It is a good idea to bake your smaller cutout shapes separately from your larger ones. They typically will not take as long to bake and might burn if grouped with the larger shapes.
- Roll out dough before refrigerating – As mentioned above in the post, rolling out your dough before chilling will save you time and frustration.
My Preferred Tools
You may already have many of these items in your kitchen. I recommend the following for this recipe:
- Kitchen Scale – precisely measure ingredients
- Baker’s Half Sheet – to bake cookies
- Cooling Racks – to cool cookies and dishwasher friendly!!
- Stand Mixer – to mix dough
- Squeeze Bottles – to apply icing
- Funnels – to fill squeeze bottles with icing
- Cookie Cutters – to cut out cookie shapes
- Rolling Pin – to roll out cookie dough
- Piping Bags – for finer icing details
If you liked this recipe, try our
St. Patrick's Day Sugar Cookies
These festive St. Patrick's Day sugar cookies are soft, buttery, do not spread in the oven, and are extremely easy to handle. The icing is smooth, simple to apply, and is delicious.
Ingredients
- COOKIES:
- 1 cup (2 sticks) salted butter, softened
- 1 cup (198 g) granulated sugar
- 2 tsp pure vanilla extract
- ½ tsp almond extract
- 1 egg, room temp
- 2 ½ cups (310 g) all-purpose flour
- ¼ tsp salt
- ¾ tsp baking powder
- ICING:
- 4 ½ cups (566 g) confectioners’ sugar
- 4 Tbsp light corn syrup
- 3-4 Tbsp milk
- 1 tsp almond extract
- Food coloring (optional)
Directions
- Step 1 COOKIES: Using a handheld or stand mixer, cream butter and sugar until smooth. Beat in vanilla, almond, and egg. Scrape down sides and bottom of bowl as needed.
- Step 2 In a separate bowl, stir together flour, baking powder, and salt. Add to the wet ingredients and mix until just combined.
- Step 3 Divide dough in half and roll out into discs on waxed paper until ¼ inch thick. Place another piece of waxed paper on top and refrigerate discs for 1 hour.
- Step 4 Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. After dough is chilled, cut with cookie cutters and place on cookie sheets.
- Step 5 Bake 8-11 minutes depending on size, or just until the edges start to look light golden brown. (My 4-inch cookies take 10 minutes.) Let the cookies cool for about 5 minutes on the cookie sheet before transferring to a wire rack. Cool completely before frosting.
- Step 6 ICING: Combine the confectioners’ sugar, milk, almond extract, and corn syrup until spreadable. The icing is a little thick. You may always adjust milk/sugar ratios. Add food coloring last (I prefer gel coloring). I use the thicker consistency to outline my cookies and then thin it with a little milk to flood the cookies. Be sure to keep the icing covered so it doesn’t harden as you work. I use squeeze bottles to apply all my icing and they keep it pliable the entire time. If you will be using a lot of colors, I would suggest doubling the icing recipe to ensure you have enough. This icing should dry for 24 hours before storing cookies. I let my fully iced cookies sit on the counter overnight to dry.
- Step 7 STORAGE: Store in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 1 week, in the refrigerator up to 2 weeks, or in the freezer up to 3 months.
Thank You for sharing your time with us
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Have a wonderful day!
