These St. Patrick’s Day sugar cookies use just 2 tablespoons of coconut sugar instead of heaps of “regular” cane sugar. Even better, the maple honey cream cheese frosting uses matcha as a natural green food dye. Perfect for kids (and adults!)
Shamrock Sugar Cookies (with coconut sugar)
Prep time: 20 minutes
Bake time: 9 minutes
INGREDIENTS
Sugar Cookies
- 2¾ cups all-purpose flour
- ½ teaspoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon fine sea salt
- 1 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
- 1 cup cane sugar See notes below for substituting with coconut sugar.
- 1 large egg, room temperature
- 1½ teaspoon vanilla extract
Maple Cream Cheese Frosting
- 8 ounces softened cream cheese
- 4 tbs softened butter (unsalted)
- 3 tbs maple syrup
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- ⅛ teaspoon salt
- 1–2 teaspoon matcha powder
DIRECTIONS
Sugar Cookies
- Whisk dry ingredients In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, and salt. Set aside.
- Cream butter & sugar In a large bowl, beat butter and sugar together until light, pale, and fluffy — about 2–3 minutes. This step builds structure and tenderness.
- Add egg & vanilla Beat in the egg and vanilla until fully incorporated and smooth.
- Combine Add dry ingredients in two additions, mixing just until the dough comes together. Do not overmix.
- Chill Divide dough in half, flatten into disks, wrap, and refrigerate for at least 1 hour (up to 48 hours).
- Roll & cut Preheat oven to 350°F. Roll dough on lightly floured parchment to about ¼-inch thick. Using shamrock shaped cookie cutters, cut and place on lined baking sheets.
- Bake Bake 8–10 minutes, just until edges are set and bottoms are lightly golden. Centers should still look pale.
- Cool Let cookies rest on the sheet for 2 minutes, then transfer to a rack to cool completely.
Maple Cream Cheese Frosting
- Soften the Cream Cheese & Butter – Let both come to room temperature for a smoother texture or use a microwave to save time.
- Whip Together – Using a hand or stand mixer, beat the cream cheese and butter until light and fluffy (about 1–2 minutes).
- Add Sweetener & Vanilla – Drizzle in the maple syrup and vanilla extract, then continue mixing until fully incorporated.
- Add Color – as the final step, mix in the matcha powder. Start with a little bit and then gradually increase the amount until the desired color is reached.
- Frost Cookies – Refrigerate for 10–15 minutes before spreading for the best texture. I like to use a 1 tbs cookie scoop to make sure each cookie has the same amount of frosting, and then use a silicone spatula to evenly spread.
- Be sure to read the notes below for advice on ingredients, substitutions, storage and how to prepare this dough 24 hours in advance.
NOTES
- If you plan to make this with your kids, my advice is to make the dough ahead of time before they join you to cut out the hearts and decorate the baked cookies. Simply roll the dough into a ball, wrap in plastic wrap, and place in the refrigerator for up to 24 hours. About an hour before baking take the dough out and unwrap to bring to room temperature. If you forget to take it out in time, unwrap and place on a plate and stick in the microwave for 10 seconds.
- After mixing the dough, give it a taste and decide if you want to add more coconut sugar.
- You can absolutely use regular cane sugar for this recipe if you want, it’s 1:1 ratio.
- I used three different shamrock shaped cookie cutters, which is fun for decorating. You can find the ones I used here:
- When making the frosting, you can taste test and add more maple syrup to make it sweeter. Also, feel free to adjust the amount of matcha powder depending on what shade of green you want. This part is fun, and you can add more as you go to have different shades for some of the cookies.
- A helpful tip when adding color to the frosting, is to remember that you can always add more color but it’s much harder to take it away which would require adding all of the other ingredients to dilute it.
- Matcha powder is one of my favorite natural food colorings. You can get this at the grocery store or on amazon.
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