Make it Monday!

Today's Make it Monday treat... Green Shamrock Sugar Cookies 

I found this recipe in Better Homes and Gardens Christmas Cookie recipe book that was published a few years back and it has been my go to recipe for sugar cookies since then, I use it all year long! you can also find it here with directions to make Santa faces. Better Homes and Gardens

Ingredients

• 1/3  cup  butter (no substitutes)
• 1/3  cup  shortening
• 3/4  cup  sugar
• 1  teaspoon  baking powder
•   Dash  salt
• 1    egg
• 1  teaspoon  vanilla
• 2  cups  all-purpose flour

Directions

1. Beat butter and shortening in a large mixing bowl with an electric mixer on medium to high speed for 30 seconds. Add sugar, baking powder, and salt; beat till combined. Beat in egg, milk, and vanilla. Beat in as much of the flour you can with the mixer. Stir in remaining flour with a wooden spoon. Cover dough and refrigerate about 3 hours or till easy to handle.

2. Roll dough on a lightly floured surface till 1/8 inch thick. Cut as desired. Place shapes 1 inch apart on an ungreased cookie sheet.

3. Bake in a 375 degree F oven for 7 to 8 minutes or till the bottoms are lightly browned. Cool 1 minute on cookie sheet. Transfer cookies to wire racks and cool completely.

(please excuse my poor photography...)

To decorate I just melted down some chocolate chips and put the melted chips in a zip top baggie cut a small hole in the bag and decorated away, I usually just drizzle it over or outline as you can see in the picture above but you could always use the icing of  your choice, a friend of mine make cookie sandwiches out of her sugar cookies placing icing between two of the cookies! YUM!

I made a few alterations to the recipe to make them green, I added 1/2 the vanilla as I didn't want the food coloring to water down the recipe too much, and of course I used green food coloring to make them green. I used just regular food coloring but you could certainly use the gel colors you would use for coloring icing or fondant as it would change your texture and will give you a richer color. Also if you wanted a minty cookie you could use a mint extract rather than vanilla, or use mint flavor chocolate chips to decorate!

Hope you enjoy these YUMMY cookies as much as I do...

Do you have a recipe that you would like to share? If you stop by leave me a comment or a link to your favorite recipe!