St Patrick’s Day Shamrock Shaped Sugar Cookies – No Cookie Cutter Needed

St Patrick’s Day shamrock shaped sugar cookies – no cookie cutter needed…Can you say that ten times fast? Whew!! But there’s really no better way to describe these cookies. They’re shaped like shamrocks, one of the many symbols for St Patrick’s Day. You can make these without a floured surface, rolling pin, and cookie cutter, not that there is anything wrong with that method, these cookies are just a time-saver. You only need a roll of store bought sugar cookie dough and some icing. Here is how you make them:

You can make them three-leaf or four-leaf, it’s up to you.

Pre-heat oven to 350

Ingredients:

1 roll store bought sugar cookie dough*

Pourable Icing:

2 cups powdered sugar (sifting optional)

4 tsp light corn syrup

4 tbsp milk or cream

green food coloring

1 tsp vanilla (optional)

Put sugar cookie dough into the freezer for about 15 minutes

Cut cookie dough into 32 wedges (work with part of the dough at a time, and put the rest of the dough back in the freezer)

Slice each wedge into 3 or 4 smaller wedges (3 for 3-leaf, 4 for 4-leaf)

Roll the small wedges into balls, leaving a few wedges aside for the stems

Place balls onto cookie sheet in groups of three or four

Press down on balls to flatten and make the shape of a shamrock or clover.

With the wedges you put to the side for stems, pull a small piece off and roll it into a small log shape, to make a stem

Lay the stem piece onto the flattened cookie shape, and then press down and flatten the stem.

Tip:  Keep your stems short and on the thinner side. Some of my stems were too long and wide.

Push in with your fingers on all meeting points to create exaggerated gaps on your shamrock or clover.

Note:  You want the spacing to be exaggerated because when the cookie is baking the dough will spread and fill in. If you start out with a perfect looking shamrock, then when it bakes, it will not hold  the shape as well and might look like a blob:)

Place cookie sheet in oven for 7 minutes, and check to see if they look done, they should be brown around the edges. Bake for 1-2  minutes more, if needed. Every oven is different, but the bottom line is that these do not need to be baked as long as you normally would for a regular batch of  “store bought sugar cookie dough” cookies.

Remove from oven and ONLY LET COOL for 30-45 seconds, then loosen with spatula and move to cookie rack to cool the rest of the way.

Make pourable icing

Mix together the icing ingredients.

Lay cookies onto wax paper. OR- if you can keep them on the cookie rack. Spoon pourable icing onto each cookie, and then spread with the spoon or a basting brush to push icing over the sides. The idea is to get the icing to fully cover the cookie shape, so LET IT DRIP!

Let icing harden for 1-2 hours

 

*One more tip:  I tried other brands, but found that the Pillsbury Sugar Cookie Dough seemed to work best for this method.

You might also like these other No Cookie Cutter Needed cookies:

Football Shaped Cookies

Heart Shaped Cookies

Ghost Shaped Cookies