Irish Heart Shamrock Cookies

Bite sized Irish Heart Shamrock Cookies are the sweetest little treats you’ll have on St. Patrick’s Day.

In an attempt to make the cutest shamrock cookies ever, I simply turned mini hearts into clovers. Adorable! Irish green cookies sitting just right on your plate make the sweetest, easy to pop in your mouth and eat, treats. Little fingers will loving helping in the process, and love eating them too.

I used heart cutters like these, some royal icing tinted in pretty shades of green, and shiny crystals of sugar.

The dough is a rich, shortbread-type cookie with a base of confectioners’ sugar. I like this type of sugar cookie because it melts a bit on your tongue when you eat it. Make sure you leave time to chill the dough, it makes such a difference when rolling it out. Roll cold dough with a little muscle as quickly as you can–the butter in the dough warms quickly and holds it’s shape the best when it’s cut cold.

I used Royal Icing with the recipe below, but I also like using this Lemon Royal Icing for a little spring brightness!

Simplify this idea as much as you’d like–Use store bought cookie dough, and canned icing. I would zap the canned icing in the microwave for a few seconds to make it a more glaze-like consistency.

My favorite food coloring are these gel pastes. It comes in so many mixable colors. I used leaf green and yellow to create the chartreuse color, and a little forest green for the darker hue.

And for the stems! A small brush of icing on the plate will make the cute shamrock stems. And for the lucky ones, a four-leaf clover instead of three!

5 from 2 votes

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Shamrock Cookies

Work Time

15 mins

Cook Time

12 mins

Total Time

27 mins

 

Everyone's a little bit Irish on St. Patrick's Day! Use your heart-shaped cookie cutters to create these easy, adorable shortbread cookies.

Course: Dessert

Cuisine: American

Keyword: Irish Heart Shamrock Cookies, St. Patrick's day cookies

Yield: 5 dozen cookies

Calories: 1023 kcal

Ingredients

• 1½ cups unsalted butter
• 1½ cups confectioners' sugar
• 6 egg yolks
• 1 tbsp vanilla extract
• ½ tsp salt
• 3½ cups all-purpose flour
• Icing
• Food coloring
• Crystal sugar

Instructions

1. Heat oven to 350°F. In a bowl, beat butter until smooth. Add confectioners' sugar and blend together. Beat in egg yolks, vanilla and salt. Stir in flour until completely incorporated. Wrap and chill dough about 30 min.
2. Roll dough to ¼-inch thickness and cut heart shapes with a 1- to 1½-inch cookie cutter. Bake on parchment-lined baking sheets for 8 to 10 min until slightly golden around edges. Cool completely.
3. Ice cookies with a thin icing tinted green and sprinkle with white crystal sugar. Arrange cookies to form shamrock shapes, then paint icing stems on serving platter with a brush.

Recipe Notes

Make Royal Icing by mixing together 4 cups confectioners' sugar, 4 tbsp meringue powder and 1/3 cup water. Mix until icing is the consistency of cold honey. Cover or use immediately.

And for the stems! A small brush of icing on the plate will make the cute shamrock stems. And for the lucky ones, a four-leaf clover instead of three!

Nutrition Facts

Shamrock Cookies

Amount Per Serving

Calories 1023 Calories from Fat 549

% Daily Value*

Total Fat 61g 94%

Saturated Fat 37g 185%

Cholesterol 380mg 127%

Sodium 253mg 11%

Potassium 133mg 4%

Total Carbohydrates 103g 34%

Dietary Fiber 2g 8%

Sugars 35g

Protein 13g 26%

Vitamin A 40.3%

Calcium 5.7%

Iron 25.8%

* Percent Daily Values are based on a 2000 calorie diet.

If you love baking for the holidays, bookmark The Best Chocolate Chip Cookies In The World, and The Perfect Piecrust for all your creations.

Recipe by Tara Bench
Photographer: Peter Ardito
Originally published in Ladies’ Home Journal March 2010

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