Shamrock Sugar Cookies

Kids love baking for many reasons, including the sense of achievement, the fun of creating something, and the opportunity to bond with their caregiver. Baking can also help kids develop math skills and learn about measurements. Be sure to allow the children to help with every part of making cookies from collecting the ingredients, measuring, mixing, rolling, cutting, and decorating the cookies. I found this recipe from the sugarspunrun web site. 

Be sure to read children’s books about shamrocks with the kids as well such as: “You’re My Little Lucky Charm” by Nicola Edwards and “You Shamrock My World” by Rose Rossner. 

You Will Need:

Sugar Cookies

1 cup unsalted butter softened
1 cup granulated sugar
1 ½ teaspoons vanilla extract
1 large egg
2 ½ cups all-purpose flour
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
3/4 teaspoon table salt

Sugar Cookie Frosting

3 cups powdered sugar, sifted (weigh before sifting)
3-4 Tablespoons whole milk
2 Tablespoons light corn syrup
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
Gel food coloring

Additional candies and sprinkles for decorating

What to Do: 

Sugar Cookies

1. Combine butter and sugar in the bowl of a stand mixer (or in a large bowl and use an electric hand mixer) and beat until creamy and well-combined.

2. Add egg and vanilla extract and beat until completely combined.

3. In a separate, medium-sized bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, and salt.

4. Gradually stir dry ingredients into wet until dough is smooth and completely combined.

5. Lay out a large piece of plastic wrap and transfer approximately half of the dough onto the wrap (dough will be quite sticky at this point, that’s OK!).

6. Cover dough with clear wrap or wax paper and mold into a flat disk. Wrap tightly. Repeat with remaining cookie dough in another piece of clear wrap. Transfer dough to refrigerator and chill for at least 2-3 hours and up to 5 days.

7. Once dough has finished chilling, preheat oven to 350F and line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Set aside.

8. Generously dust a clean surface with flour and place one chilled cookie dough disk onto the surface. Lightly flour the dough and roll out to ⅛” (for thinner, crispier cookies) or ¼” (for thicker, softer cookies). Add additional flour as needed both on top of and beneath the dough so that it doesn’t stick.

Note: if dough is cracking as you roll it, let it sit at room temperature for 10-15 minutes to soften before attempting again.

9. Use cookie cutters to cut out shapes and use a spatula to transfer shapes to prepared baking sheet, spacing at least 1″ apart. If you are not intending to decorate your cookies with icing, you can decorate them with sanding sugar at this point before you bake them. 

10. Bake on 350F for 8-10 minutes or until edges just begin to turn lightly golden brown.

Easy Sugar Cookie Icing

1. Combine powdered sugar, 2 Tablespoons of milk, corn syrup, and vanilla extract in a medium-sized bowl and stir until combined. If frosting is too thick, add more milk, about a teaspoon at a time, until the frosting is thick but pipeable. If you accidentally add too much milk, add powdered sugar until desired texture is reached.  
2. If coloring the frosting, divide into bowls and color as desired at this point.
3. Transfer frosting to a piping bag with a piping tip or place in a Ziploc bag and snip a small piece of the corner off.
4. Pipe frosting on cookies and decorate with decorative candies, if desired.
5. Allow frosting to harden before enjoying, stacking, or storing (this took several hours for me and may vary for you depending on the consistency of your frosting).

Reference:

Recipe from sugarspunrun

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