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.