Sugar Cookies

Sugar cookies taste great any time of the year. But they’re especially festive near a holiday. Hearts for Valentine’s Day, Colorful Eggs for Easter, and today we’re making Green Shamrocks and Glittery Gold Coins for St. Patrick’s Day:
Bake them while the kids sleep, decorate them together when they wake up, then take cookies to the park to share with friends.
Let’s get started!
There are many Sugar Cookie recipes out there. I’ve tried quite a few. This one is great because you can actually roll the dough out and cut out cookies without them sticking to the counter (or having to chill the dough for hours).
But what I love best is that it really reminds me of being a kid. Soft in the center, crunchy on the outside, with sweet shortening whipped frosting. Reminds me of the Pink Granny B’s Sugar Cookies. Delicious.

Holiday Sugar Cookies (from my friend Lyndsey, The Paper Girl)
1 cup butter (2 sticks)
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 tsp almond extract

1 1/2 cups powdered sugar
3 cups flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp cream of tartar
1/4 tsp salt

* Mix the butter, egg, vanilla and almond extract together in one bowl with electric mixer or hand mixer
* In another bowl, mix the dry ingredients together
* Combine the wet and Dry ingredients.
* Roll dough onto a solid-surface counter or onto wax paper. Roll out. And start cutting shapes. Shamrocks:
and coins:
Place them on a NON-stick baking sheet. Bake at 375 degrees for 7-8 Minutes. Cool before frosting.
Sugar Cookie FROSTING
1/2 cup shortening
5 Tbl milk
2 T almond extract
1 1/2 lbs (or appx 6 cups) Powdered sugar
dash of salt
1 tsp vanilla
food coloring

This will be more frosting than you need, but 1/2 the recipe didn’t seem like quite enough. So….make crackers and frosting with the leftovers!

Okay, mix all the ingredients in an electric mixer or with a hand mixer.
Add your favorite food coloring. Wilton makes wonderful products. But I only had the cheap stuff on-hand:
Mix-up Yellow for the Gold Coins and Green for the Shamrocks (add a few drops of yellow to the green to make it more of a “grass green”)
Grab Gold sprinkles for your coins, knives for the frosting and you’re ready to decorate:
The secret to an easy/nice-looking frosting job is to get close to the edge but not TO the edge. This way your fingers don’t get all messy when you pick the cookie up:
If you want your Gold Coins to sparkle, add some Yellow Sugar Sprinkles on top:
And while you’re making a plate of “nice” looking cookies, grab plates for the kids and let them go at it. I let them decorate however they chose to:
Of course there was more of this:
this:
and this going on, than there was decorating:
But that’s the best part!
Now load your cookies on to your favorite serving tray:
And take them to the park for a late afternoon snack with your friends.
You’ve struck gold today!

  1. 1) Anna Lisa

    Hey so I found your sugar cookie recipe on Pinterest and I must say that it’s the BEST cookie recipe ever! I thought the taste was PERFECT!! Not so sure how much I love the frosting though, but the cookie itself is amazing! Thanks so much for sharing! šŸ™‚

  2. 2) Kandy

    This is my top recipe! Love it! So easy to make!

  3. 4) Teresa

    Can you use butter instead of shortening here?

    • 5) Dana

      I think that would work. The shortening just adds a nice crunch around the edges. But yes! Try it!

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