Use your heart-shaped cookie cutter to make Shamrock
Cookies for St. Patrick's Day.
Here's how:
Time needed from start to finish, including time to put
icing on the cookies, 2 to 2.5 hours.
Yield: 2 dozen large shamrock cookies
Shamrock Cookie Recipe
• 1/2 cup shortening
• 1/2 cup butter or margarine
• 2 cups sugar
• 3 eggs
• 1/4 cup milk
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 5 cups flour
Cream shortening and sugar together. Beat in eggs. Stir
in milk, vanilla and salt. Mix in flour. Work the dough
with your hands for a minute before rolling out.
Roll out the dough to 1/8 inch thick. Use flour as
needed to roll out the cookies.
For each shamrock, you will need 3 heart-shaped
cookies. Place one heart on an ungreased cookie sheet,
then put one heart on each side at a 90-degree angle so
the tips at the bottom are overlapping. Gently press
the cookies together where they overlap. Take a lump of
dough the size of a small walnut. Roll into a rope.
Press one inch of the rope onto the bottom of the
shamrock. Shape the remaining rope into a stem and
flatten gently. (Four or five shamrocks will fit on
each cookie sheet.)
Bake in a 350 degree oven for 12 minutes, or until
golden brown. Immediately remove the cookies from the
cookie sheet and allow to cool.
When the cookies are cooled thoroughly, frost with
shamrock icing. For added decoration, use cookie
sprinkles, if desired.
Shamrock Icing
(makes enough to frost 2 dozen shamrock cookies)
• 3 cups of powdered sugar
• 1/4 cup soft butter or margarine
• 5 or 6 tablespoons milk
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
• 10 drops green food coloring
Measure the powdered sugar into a mixing bowl. Work the
butter/margarine into the dry powdered sugar with a
mixing spoon. Add salt and vanilla. Add the milk 1
tablespoon at a time and mix thoroughly after each
addition. When the icing is finished, add the food
coloring and mix thoroughly.
LeAnn R. Ralph is the author of the book, Christmas in
Dairyland (True Stories from a Wisconsin Farm). She is
working on her next book, Give Me a Home Where the
Dairy Cows Roam. To read sample chapters, other Rural
Route 2 stories and to sign up for the free monthly
e-mail newsletter, Rural Route 2 News, visit —
http://ruralroute2.com
Please post your comments on this article or ideas you have for St. Patrick's Day at the Other Holidays Message Board
cookies. Place one heart on an ungreased cookie sheet,
then put one heart on each side at a 90-degree angle so
the tips at the bottom are overlapping. Gently press
the cookies together where they overlap. Take a lump of
dough the size of a small walnut. Roll into a rope.
Press one inch of the rope onto the bottom of the
shamrock. Shape the remaining rope into a stem and
flatten gently. (Four or five shamrocks will fit on
each cookie sheet.)
