So I have a confession; I am not Irish. Not even close to being Irish.
The closest I get is that I like beer and boys with Irish accents. Soooo basically I’m American. And 25 years old.
But we all know that the whole ‘not being remotely related to this holiday’ thing would never stand in my way. Give me green. A couple sticks of butter. And let me get to work!
I knew I wanted something simple and easy – because when you’re baking cookies for your kid’s class party, office friends, or holiday get together; you want to look like Martha Stewart but cook like Betty Crocker. The cookies and the frosting whip up pretty quick, the only extra step is using cookie cutters right when the cookies come out of the oven and piping the frosting. Pretty pretty easy guys!
If you don’t have alphabet cookie cutters you can definitely leave that step out! Green oreos are just as festive :) Plus you can switch up the colors and tailor these to whatever holiday you want… pink for Easter.. red white & blue for the 4th… I only found half the alphabet hiding in my horribly disorganized baking cabinet – so voila! Spelled “Lucky” using a rotated “U” for the “C”.
Happy St. Patty’s Day everyone!!
“Luck of the Irish” Homemade Oreos
Yields about 2 1/2 dozen
Ingredients:
For the Chocolate Cookies
- 1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
- 3/4 cup unsweetened Dutch-process cocoa powder
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1 1/2 cups sugar, plus more for flattening cookies
- 10 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
- 1 large egg
- Mini alphabet cookie cutters (L,U,C,K,Y – or whatever word you’d like to spell)
For the Vanilla Cream Filling
- 1/2 cup unsalted butter
- 1/2 cup nonhydrogenated vegetable shortening
- 3 1/2 cups confectioners’ sugar
- 1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract
- Green and Yellow food coloring
Preparation:
- Make the Cookies: Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
- Sift together flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder, and salt into a medium bowl.
- In a large bowl, cream together butter and sugar until light and fluffy; about 2 minutes. Add egg; beat to combine. With the mixer on low, slowly add flour mixture, beating until well combined.
- Using a 1 1/4 inch ice cream scoop (or rounded tablespoon), drop dough onto parchment lined baking sheets about 2 inches apart. Dip bottom of a glass in extra sugar and press to flatten cookies to about 1/4 inch thick.
- Bake 10-12 minutes until firm. Transfer to wire racks, let cookies sit for about 1 minute to firm up a bit, then use cookie cutters to carefully cut out letters from center of half the batch of cookies (the other half will be the bottom of the sandwiches). You need to use the cookie cutters while the cookies are still warm, if you try this while they are cool the cookies will break and crumble. Once cut, set aside to cool completely.
- Make the Frosting: Cream butter and shortening together in a large bowl until well combined. With the mixer on low, gradually add confectioners’ sugar and continue to beat until light and fluffy; about 2 more minutes. Add vanilla and beat to combine. Add 18 drops green food coloring and 6 drops yellow and beat until the frosting becomes a uniform color (this will give the frosting a mint green color, feel free to add more or less color for your preference).
- Assemble the Sandwiches: Using a pastry bag and rounded tip, carefully pipe frosting onto the flat side of half the cookies (the half WITHOUT the cutouts). Place remaining cookies on top and gently press to firmly sandwich them together.
- Store in an airtight container up to 3 days.
Recipe Adapted from Martha Stewart
I don’t get very excited for St. Patrick’s Day. I will get excited for these cookies. Cute, cute, cute!
I love how festive your cookies are. I still need to try making my own homemade Oreos. I will have to bookmark these!
Too cute! I love the cut-out letters on top…I am totally using that idea for birthday cookies down the line!
I love the letter cookie cutter idea! That’s awesome! And not to mention the homemade oreo’s :p
Kristina these are seriously adorable – omg I love the cookie cutter “lucky” and who doesn’t jump up and down at the thought of homemade oreos?!? :D
These are SO gorgeous!!! LOVE the green, and the letters!
OMG these are amazing my sweet! I so wish that I could be eating sweets now. Lent is almost over though. YUM!
OMG these are the most adorable cookies ever! And oreos are so amazing to beging with.
Girl you can take the Irish-ness, I so don’t want it! Lol
Bit omg these cookies! I love them! They look yummy and cute as all get out!
If I had a blender, these would be the official St. Patrick’s Day cookies in Ireland this year. Great job Kristina. Maybe I can convince my neighbors to lend me theirs?
Haha yes! You need to make friends with all the neighborhood old ladies asap.
It’s a green recipe that isn’t mint! Yay!!!
Also, I nominated you for the Versatile Blogger Award.
http://naileditfailedit.wordpress.com/2013/03/13/cheesy-shrimp-rice/
You are too sweet Jenn!! Thanks so much for thinking of me!!
I love oreos and i`m love the st. patty`s day flare. hehe. :)
Would it taste weird if I use whole wheat pastry flour? I love this recipe but I dont have enough all purpose!
They’ll definitely be a bit different tasting, more earthier and a lot denser. I don’t usually recommend using only whole wheat flour in a recipe because sometimes it can make baked goods too heavy, but it’s always good to experiment! There’s a lot of chocolate in this recipe to cover up the whole wheat flavor so this might be an instance where it works :)