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Sugar cookies are one of my absolute favorite desserts! This recipe is truly the very best. It is unique with its 3 extracts that all compliment each other so well, combined with a soft and buttery sugar cookie. Another awesome thing about sugar cookies is their ability to customize to any theme or holiday. You can add sugar cookies to every single party! And you should. Below you will find some St. Patricks Day sugar cookies. This holiday is very low key in our home, just a special green dinner. No matter how big or how small you celebrate, sugar cookies compliment your festivities.
What is in a sugar cookie?
Unsalted Butter
It is always important to use unsalted butter when baking. If you use salted butter, you have no way of knowing how much salt you are adding to your dough or batter and it will result in an overly salted treat.
Butter adds fats to your dough or batter which helps with moistness, flavor and texture. Butter melts at body temperature, which creates a ‘melt in your mouth’ sensation.
When baking with butter the temperature is important. If the butter is too warm your treat will melt down too fast and overspread in the oven, leaving you with a greasy, flat mess. If your butter is too cold it will have the opposite problem and not melt down enough, leaving your treat too thick.
Granulated Sugar
Adds sweetness, provides a caramelized flavor and crisp texture. Sugar assists with rising when creamed with butter. It helps add moisture to your treat and helps it evenly spread as it melts into a liquid in the heat of the oven. Sugar also helps with naturally preserving your baked treat.
Almond Extract
Adds a unique sweet and nutty flavor to your dough.
Vanilla Extract
When using pure vanilla extract, as opposed to imitation flavoring, it will add the deep rich flavor that everybody wants in a treat.
Eggs
Adds both a protein (egg whites) and fat (egg yolks). The egg whites help with rising because, when foamed, little air pockets get trapped inside the egg white mixture. The water content in egg whites encourages steam while baking, which helps with gluten formation, resulting in nice and thick treats. Egg yolks have emulsifying properties that bring batters and doughs together and help them from collapsing. Unless otherwise specified, always use large eggs.
Egg Yolks
Adding extra egg yolks to your batter will add extra richness and chewiness to your cookie or brownie.
Fine Sea Salt
Enhances flavor, adds balance, masks any bitter flavors. Salt is the most powerful and oldest preservative. Always make sure to use fine sea salt so it melts down at the right speed in the heat of the oven. If you use larger granule salt, it will not melt down fully when baked and will leave salt crystals throughout your treat, making it crunch like you dropped it into sand.
Baking Powder
Puffs up your batter or dough instead of spreading it out. Baking powder contains a little bit of baking soda, an acid & cornstarch. Because of this, it only needs a liquid to react. It also consists of two different acids, so it’s double reacting. It reacts as soon as it’s mixed with a moisture and then again when it’s heated up.
All-purpose Flour
Builds structure as it absorbs liquids and expands. All-purpose flour falls in the middle of bread flour (high in gluten) and cake flour (low in gluten). It’s exactly what it is named, all-purpose, the most universal flour that can be used in most baked goods.
Unsalted butter
Often the main ingredient of frosting, it adds structure to your buttercream. It also adds a smooth and velvety texture. Butter melts at body temperature, so it will make your frosting have a melt-in-your-mouth sensation.
Cream cheese
Provides a unique, tangy flavor. When baked it adds moisture to your treat.
Coconut Extract
Adds a sweet tropical flavor to your treats.
Powdered Sugar
Is just finely ground granulated sugar. It will absorb moisture in your batter or dough. It dissolves easily, ensuring a smooth texture without grittiness. Because it is so fine, it can melt quickly in the oven and spread cookies out more. Powdered sugar also stabilizes and thickens the frosting, thanks to the small amount of cornstarch it contains.
How do I ensure my cookies have the perfect texture?
The key is in the chilling process. Chilling the dough solidifies the fat, which helps in achieving that desirable combination of a crisp edge and a chewy center.
Chilling the dough is an essential step for more than one reason. It also helps the flavors blend together. This is a step that is too important to skip, even if it’s just for 1 hour. Patience pays off!
Can I make the sugar cookie dough ahead of time?
Yes! This dough is supposed to chill in the fridge for at least 1-3 hours. But, because this cookie dough is made with baking powder it can be left in the fridge for up to 3 days. Baking powder is unique in the fact that it has 2 chemical reactions, once when it’s mixed into the dough and a second time when placed in heat. That means, even after 3 days in the fridge, your cookies will still rise in the heat of the oven.
Can I make these sugar cookies vegan or gluten-free?
Yes, you can substitute the butter with a plant-based alternative and use gluten-free flour. However, keep in mind that this may slightly alter the texture and flavor.
Do you have to cream your butter & sugar when making sugar cookies?
Yes! Creaming your butter and sugar is an important step in all cookie making. The reason why this is so important is because it’s a part of the rising process. When you cream your sugar and butter properly it will trap tiny air bubbles into your dough, which make your cookies puff up when baked.
Creaming is the only time in the mixing process when you want to turn your mixer on high and beat for 2 minutes. After you have creamed the butter and sugar the rest of the ingredients should be slowly stirred in, just until the ingredients combine. You must be extra careful to not over-mix the batter when you add in your protein (eggs) and gluten (flour) or it will ruin the texture completely.
Here is a visual example of what creamed butter and sugar will look like:
How do I roll out sugar cookies without the dough sticking?
The best way to roll out sugar cookies is to place the dough on a parchment sheet and then cover with some plastic wrap. Then roll the dough out with your rolling pin. This way you don’t have to add extra flour or powdered sugar to keep the dough from sticking to the counter. Too much additional flour and sugar can change the texture of the cookie.
I like to roll out my cookie dough right when I mix it, then place it in the fridge to rest. By doing it this way, you won’t need to fight cold sugar cookie dough with a rolling pin. Talk about sore muscles.
How to Decorate St. Patricks Sugar Cookies
For these cookies I flat iced them in green frosting and then used ziplock bags with a corner cut off to pipe on 3 color rainbows. I chose red, yellow and blue for my rainbow colors. You could also use piping bags, but I chose to use ziplock bags because this is a simple design with no piping tips necessary. I decided to not waste my more expensive piping bags on the task.
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Sugar Cookie
Ingredients
Cookie
- 1 1/2 cup unsalted butter
- 1 1/2 cup granulated sugar
- 1 tsp almond extract
- 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
- 2 eggs
- 2 egg yolks
- 1/4 tsp fine sea salt
- 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
- 3 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
Frosting
- 1 cup unsalted butter
- 8 ounces cream cheese
- 1 tsp almond extract
- 1 tsp coconut extract
- 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
- 6 cups powdered sugar
Instructions
Cookies
- Place butter & sugar in a standing mixer. Mix until combined, then whip on high for 1-2 minutes until mixture is lighter in color
- Add extracts, eggs & egg yolks. Mix until just combined
- In a separate bowl mix salt, powder & flour
- Turn standing mixer on low and slowly pour in dry ingredients. Stop mixing as soon as the dough comes together
- Place dough on parchment paper, cover with plastic wrap and roll out
- Place in refrigerator for at least 30 minutes, up to 3 days
- Preheat oven to 375 degrees **Note: Convection setting is great for cookies**
- Take out of fridge and cut with cookie cutter
- Place on a light metal pan lined with parchment paper
- Bake for 9 minutes
- Take out of the oven and allow to sit on pan for 5-10 minutes. Remove from pan to finish cooling
Frosting
- In a standing mixer add butter & cream cheese, mix until combined
- Pour in extracts and sugar, mix until combined
- Once combined, turn mixer up to high and whip for 1-2 minutes until lighter in color
Assemble
- Once cookies have cooled spread or pipe on the desired amount of frosting on top
Nutrition
Have you tried this recipe?
I’d love to see it! Follow @_mrs.madi_ on Instagram and tag your photos with #mrsmadi.
