Happy St. Patty's Day, Shamrock Butter Cookies!

For pretty much every holiday I bake butter cookies and make them in whatever appropriate shapes.  Thus, it's no big surprise that I made some butter cookies in the shapes of shamrocks for St. Patrick's Day.  YUM YUM!

Everyone loves them and they're easy to make.  Sometimes I ice them for extra sweet goodness, and sometimes I let the butter cookie sing.  This time I did both.

The recipe comes to me from my mom :)

SHAMROCK BUTTER COOKIES

INGREDIENTS:

1 lb. butter
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
4 1/2 - 5 cups of flour (not a full 5)
1 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. vanilla
3 cups sifted confectioner's sugar
1/4 cup milk
1/2 tsp. vanilla
Dash of salt
(food coloring, optional)

DIRECTIONS:

Mix well. Taking one or two handfuls at a time, roll out the dough. Cut with cookie cutter, or use a juice glass top to cut. Just press rim of glass into dough and form circles.

Bake at 325 for approximately 5-6 minutes. They shouldn't be too brown on the edges. I check the bottoms to make sure they are golden before taking them out.

PERSONAL NOTES:

When rolling the dough, use a sheet of wax paper for the surface, sprinkle with flour, place the dough and sprinkle that with some flour. Cover with a second piece of wax paper. Use the rolling pin over that. It just makes for easier rolling.

For the icing I use skim milk and it always comes out great.

Italian Lemon (Jeanettes) Cookies

Finally!  Here's the recipe and directions for everyone's favorite holiday cookie.

This recipe was given to me by a little old Italian woman who has since passed away.  When she taught me, she literally took me by the hand and walked me through the whole process.  What a sweet woman.  After all these years I felt it was time to share the recipe.  I don't see any reason why not.  It's a family recipe; shouldn't it be shared?

ITALIAN LEMON (JEANETTES) COOKIES

INGREDIENTS:

5-6 CUPS flour

4 tsp baking powder

1 CUP sugar

2 tsp vanilla extract

1 tsp lemon extract

½ pound butter (2 sticks)

1 tsp salt

6 eggs

Icing: 1 cup Confectioner’s sugar, 2 tbls milk, ½ tsp lemon extract

Makes 6 dozen

DIRECTIONS:

1… Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

2… Mix together the dry ingredients.  Make a “well” in the center and add butter and eggs to the center.  KNEAD the dough until smooth.  Continue adding small bits of flour until batter comes away clean from your hands.

3… Take tablespoon-sized portions of dough and roll them out (to about 4 1/2" - 5" pieces) and twist them. 

4...Place them on a cookie sheet.

5… Bake approximately 8 minutes. Cookies are done when the bottoms are golden brown and the tops just start to turn.

Once they've cooled completely, mix the confectioner sugar/milk/lemon extract in a small bowl.  Turn the cookies upside down and dip them in the icing.  Place them on wax paper to harden.

Then enjoy them!!!