Lime Shamrock Cookies

Lime Shamrock Cookies

Lime Shamrock Cookies

It's almost St. Patrick's Day! To celebrate this day, I baked Lime Shamrock Cookies yesterday. The lime juice and lime zest really brings out the fresh flavor of these cookies. The recipe is adapted from Sweetopia, but I reduced the sugar by 1/2 cup and added more lime zest. I share the recipe below.

Close-up, Lime Shamrock Cookies

Yield: 3 dozen cookies.

Ingredients
2 cups (4 sticks) Unsalted Butter, softened and each stick cut into 8 cubes

2 Extra Large Eggs

1 1/2 cups Granulated Sugar

5 cups All Purpose Flour (I use King Arthur)

Zest of 3 Limes

3 tablespoons Freshly Squeezed Lime Juice

1 teaspoon Coarse Salt

Lime Shamrock Cookies

Directions
Cut each stick of butter into 8 pieces.

Sift flour and salt in large bowl and combine with whisk or spatula; put aside.

Cream the butter and sugar together in a bowl of an electric mixer with paddle attachment on low to medium speed. Mix until incorporated, about 1 minute.

Shamrocks with sprinkles

Scrape sides of bowl with spatula and mix again for 5-10 seconds more.

Add eggs one at a time. Scrape down bowl with spatula and mix again for another 5 seconds.

Add lime zest and lime juice and mix for 30-45 seconds.

Shamrock Cookies with silver dragees

Slowly add flour mixture and mix on low speed for 1-2 minutes.

When dough clumps around paddle attachment it is ready.

Form dough into a ball, cover with plastic wrap, and cool in fridge for 1-2 hours or overnight.

Lime Shamrock Cookies

Heat oven to 350 degrees.

Take 1/4 of the dough, use rolling pin and roll out between 2 pieces of parchment paper to desired thickness, dip cutter in a little flour, and cut out shapes. I use Wilton Shamrock cutter. Repeat rolling the dough and cutting shapes until you use it all.

Place shamrock shapes on parchment lined baking sheet and space apart 2 inches. Put cookies in the freezer for 10-15 minutes before baking. They hold their shape when you do this.

Bake cookies for 9-13 minutes, or until edges are slightly browned. My cookies baked in 13 minutes.

Lime Shamrock Cookies

Let cookies cool in baking sheet for 5 minutes and then transfer to wire rack to cool completely, about 1 hour.

Let cookie sheets cool completely before you bake again. I put the cookie sheet in the freezer for 5 minutes. Repeat until you have baked all the cookies.

Large Batch Royal Icing
Ingredients
8 Egg Whites

8 teaspoons Lemon Juice, freshly squeezed

12 cups Powdered/Confectioners' Sugar, sifted

Lime Shamrock Cookies

Directions
In a large bowl, sift powdered sugar, set aside.

In a medium size bowl, whisk together the egg whites and lemon juice.

Transfer the egg whites and lemon juice mixture to stand or hand held mixer with paddle attachment and mix on high for 1-2 minutes.

With mixer speed on low, slowly add sifted sugar and beat on low until smooth.

Lime Cookie Dough

If needed, you may add 1 teaspoon of water at a time until you reach the right consistency. Watch the Joy of Baking (link at the end) video for both Flooding Consistency and Piping Consistency Royal Icing. If you prefer a recipe using Meringue Powder, it is also available at this link.

I separate the icing in plastic containers with lids according to the amount of colors I need for tinting.

I use Americolor Soft Gel Paste Food Color in Green. I made three shades of green for color variation.

Royal Icing hardens fast so keep it covered when not in use.

I transferred the icing immediately into Squeeze Bottles using a funnel to prevent it from spilling. If the Royal Icing hardens due to exposure to air, spray a little bit of water and shake bottle well holding the tip with your finger. Test the icing consistency on a paper towel before decorating the cookie.

Use a paintbrush or cookie stick to reach edges and use tip of cookie stick or a toothpick to pop any air bubbles.

I lined a cookie sheet with paper towels and placed the cookies on cooling tray over it.

Sugars, Pearls, Sprinkles and Dragees I use to decorate the cookies

I used the following for decoration:
Wilton Green Sparkling Sugar
Wilton Green Sanding Sugar
Wilton White Sugar Pearls
Wilton Green Sprinkles
Silver Dragees

For further information:
For the citrus sugar cookie recipe, please visit Sweetopia:
http://sweetopia.net/2012/07/when-life-gives-you-lemons-lemon-cookie-recipe-tutorial/

For the Royal Icing recipe and video tutorial, please visit:
http://www.joyofbaking.com/RoyalIcing.html

For more information on St. Patrick and the history of St. Patrick's Day, please visit:
http://www.history.com/topics/st-patricks-day

Enjoy!

-Sophia/Two Frys