Show your Irish spirit with these fun cookies, plus the kids will get a geography lesson to boot.
Ingredients
Cookies
- 1 cup butter, at room temperature
- 1 1/2Â cups confectioners sugar
- 1 egg, at room temperature
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 teaspoon almond extract
- 2 1/2Â cups unbleached all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1 teaspoon cream of tartar
- Icing ingredients
Icing
- 1 cup confectioners sugar
- Pinch of kosher salt
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 tablespoon water 2 drops orange food coloring
- 2 drops green food coloring
Directions
- In a medium bowl, cream together the butter and sugar for four to five minutes or until light and fluffy, scraping the bowl halfway through.
- Beat in egg, vanilla and almond extract. Mix well.
- In a medium bowl, stir together the flour, baking soda, salt and cream of tartar. Blend into the butter mixture.
- Divide dough into thirds and shape into balls. Wrap in plastic and refrigerate for 30 minutes.
- Working with one-third of the dough at a time, roll out dough to 1/4-inch thick on a board dusted with confectioners sugar. Cut into 1½ x 2½-inch rectangles. A cookie cutter really works best, but cutting freehand with a chef’s knife works in a pinch.
- Place rectangles on parchment-covered cookie sheet, two inches apart. Refrigerate cookie sheet for 15 minutes.
- Bake in a preheated 350 degree oven until lightly browned. Cool completely on wire rack.
Icing:
- In a small bowl, stir together 1/2 cup sugar, pinch of salt,1/2 tsp. vanilla, 2 tsp. water and orange food coloring.
- Add additional water as needed to make a thin, brushableconsistency.
- In another small bowl, stir together the remaining icingingredients.
- Holding a cookie in one hand, brush a stripe of orange icingwith a pastry brush on the right one-third of each cookie. Continueicing remaining cookies. When orange icing sets, begin decoratingwith the green icing. Once icing is set, store cookies in anairtight container.