Happy St. Patrick's Day!

This is probably the holiday where I do the least amount of decorating. Am I the only one who isn't crazy about St. Patrick's Day?

Since my son is in preschool, I wanted him to be able to bring a festive treat for the class. I think all kids love sugar cookies, so that is what I have made for the past few holiday class treats, and each time it has gone over well. I also decided to use royal icing. I usually make my own with meringue powder, powder sugar, and water, etc., but when I was at Michael's Arts and Crafts, they had the Wilton's pre-made royal icing, so I thought that I would give it a try. It definitely made the icing prep much easier.

Use whatever sugar cookie recipe you like (or buy some pre-made...I'm not here to judge), and cut out the shamrock shape using a cookie cutter, and bake them up! I will warn you, the shamrock cookies cutters are not the easiest to work with. Make sure to dip the cookie cutter into some flour to help prevent the dough from sticking. Also, make sure your dough is really cold, it will make it much easier to work with, and practice some patience! I had to!

Once they are cooled, you can make up the frosting. You can really control the thickness of the icing by how much water you add. You want it to drizzle nicely, but not be too liquidy (is that a word?). If you add too much water, don't worry, add a little bit of powdered sugar, and that will help to thicken it up. I used three different colors, and filled three plastic piping bags with the icing. I didn't use any piping tips, I simply cut off the tip of the piping bag and drizzled the frosting over the cookies one at a time. I like to let each color dry for a few minutes at least before adding in the next color.

Allow these to dry for a few hours at least, before storing them or packaging them up!

My favorite recipe for Sugar Cookies is below!

Sugar Cookies

5 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/4 cups sugar
1 cup unsalted butter room temperature
1 cup coconut oil; measure at room temperature and then melt and allow it to cool
2 eggs, room temperature
1 teaspoon vanilla

Directions

In a bowl whisk together flour, baking powder, and salt. Set aside.
In a stand mixer cream together the butter and sugar until light, fluffy and pale in color.
Slowly add in the cooled coconut oil and mix well.
Stir in the eggs one at a time and mix until combined.
Mix in the vanilla.
Slowly add in the flour mixture and stir until completely mixed in. Be careful not to over mix.
Divide dough in half and wrap it in plastic wrap or in a plastic bag. Place wrapped dough in the refrigerator for at least one hour.

Remove the dough from the fridge about an hour or so before you are ready to roll it out (depending on how cold the dough is).
Roll out the dough on a floured surface using a rolling pin.

Roll it out to about 1/4 of an inch thick.

Use cookie cutters to cut out the shapes you like and re-roll the excess dough for more cookies.

Place the cookies on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper

Place the cookies in the fridge for about 10 minutes while you heat your oven to 350 degrees.

*Note: make sure to change the baking sheet to a room temperature baking sheet and not the one the cookies were on in the fridge. If you put a cold baking sheet into a hot oven it will lower the oven temperature and could throw off your baking process.

Place the cookies in the oven and bake.

The baking time will vary depending on how cold the dough is, but it’s roughly 9-15 minutes.

You know they are done when they have a slight browning on the bottom of the cookie and it will move on the baking sheet if you push it with your finger instead of being melted to the parchment paper.

Allow the cookies to cool completely before decorating.