Happy St. Patrick’s Day! While I didn’t make many St. Patrick’s Treats this year, I did decide to try my hand at royal icing again. This time went much better than the last! I made the piping frosting a bit thinner than last time and it was much easier to work with. I tried to get creative with my designs, but I only came up with polka dots, plain and hearts (which I already did for Valentine’s Day). I think some green sugar outlines would be fun, but I didn’t have any green sugar, or any liquid food coloring to make sugar.

I’m going to be honest and say that I didn’t love cookies, but I think that’s because I don’t really love cut-out sugar cookies in general. They sure do look cute, but they lack the sweetness and softness of other cookies that I’ve made. Regardless of my opinion though, I think these are worth trying. Just a note, I did double the batch to make approximately 24 shamrocks.

Chocolate Sugar Cookies with Royal Icing
Ingredients:

3/4 cup flour
1/3 cup cocoa powder (I used regular this time, but I would use Special Dark)
Pinch of salt
12 Tbs unsalted butter, softened
3/4 cup powdered sugar
1 large egg
1/2 tsp vanilla extract

In a small bowl whisk together flour, cocoa powder and salt. Set aside. In a separate bowl cream together butter and sugar until light and fluffy, about 3-4 minutes. Blend in egg and vanilla. On a low speed, add dry ingredients and mix until just combined. Cover the bowl tightly in plastic wrap and chill overnight.

Preheat oven to 325F. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper. Turn dough onto a flour surface (it’s pretty sticky dough) and roll out to 1/4 inch thickness. Cut out shapes with cookie cutters and place on prepared baking sheets. Bake for 10-12 minutes, until set. Let cool on baking sheets for 5-10 minutes and move to a cooling rack to fully cool before decorating. Decorate as desired. I used Royal Icing, which can be found in this post.

Recipe from Annie’s Eats