Using your choice of cookie cutters, you can enjoy these soft-baked vanilla bean sugar cookies as any shape you want. I’m showing shamrock-shaped cookies for St. Patrick’s Day! Without frosting, the vanilla bean cookies are lightly sweetened and fabulous with coffee or tea. But if you want to add some dazzling decoration, top with vanilla bean buttercream and a happy dose of sprinkles.
If you’re looking for a treat to serve on St. Patrick’s Day, these shamrock cookies are certainly festive by paying homage to the patron saint of Ireland. While I usually bake a batch of Guinness brownies on March 17th, I thought sugar cookies would be really fun this year because my oldest loves to decorate them. (Disclaimer—I did pipe buttercream on the pictured sugar cookies myself even though if you look closely, sprinkles are covering some ugly spots… not a pro over here!)
These Vanilla Bean Shamrock Cookies Are:
- easy to make and decorate
- festive for St. Patrick’s Day
- soft & thick if you don’t roll the dough too thin
- wonderfully buttery
- flavored with real vanilla bean
And there’s something to say about these shamrock cookies even without the buttercream—they’re so buttery, remind me of shortbread, and the vanilla bean flavor really shines through!
Let me share some helpful advice and step-by-step photos so you get this recipe right on the first time:
My Absolute Best Sugar Cookie Recipe
If you haven’t tried my sugar cookies yet, now is the time! I use that sugar cookie dough for nearly all of my shaped sugar cookies and you can find them all on the new Cut Out Cookies page. Loved by many, the sugar cookies are soft, thick, hold their shape in the oven, and have a flat surface ready for decorating. It’s a classic recipe that’s simple yet easily versatile, like vanilla cupcakes (another favorite!). Today’s recipe is the same as my sugar cookies recipe only you’ll add vanilla bean and we’re taking a small step away from traditional royal icing, too.
For today’s shamrock cookies:
- Vanilla Bean: Add the seeds scraped from 1 whole vanilla bean. If you can’t find vanilla bean in your grocery store, you can order some online. I use and love these exact vanilla beans—and they’re usually what I use for homemade vanilla extract and homemade vanilla sugar too.
- Optional Vanilla Sugar: Speaking of homemade vanilla sugar… have you ever used it in baking before? Today’s recipe is the perfect place for vanilla sugar because this type of sugar is best used in recipes where vanilla is the prominent flavor. Just use it as a 1:1 replacement for regular granulated sugar. It’s optional though; while I’ve made these sugar cookies with vanilla sugar before, I didn’t use it in today’s pictured cookies.
- Cookie Cutter: You can use today’s vanilla bean sugar cookie dough with any cookie cutter. For the shamrocks, I used the medium and small cookie cutters from this exact shamrock cookie cutter set. I know the store Michaels carries shamrock cookie cutters and if you want to purchase a single shamrock cookie cutter, this 3-inch size is a great option.
The Trick is the Order of Steps
After the cookie dough comes together, roll the dough out and chill the rolled out sections of dough. Cut the chilled dough into shamrocks or other shapes and then bake.
Notice how I roll out the dough BEFORE chilling it in the refrigerator?
That’s the trick and let me explain why it works. To prevent the cookies from over-spreading, the cookie dough must be refrigerated first. Roll the dough out right after you prepare it and then chill it. (At this point the dough is too soft to cut into shapes.) Don’t chill the cookie dough and then try to roll it out because it will be too cold and stiff to roll. I divide the dough in half before rolling it out and highly recommend you do the same because smaller sections of dough are a lot easier to handle.
I do this any time I make sugar cookies, for any occasion like these Valentine’s Day cookies, Easter cookies, fireworks cookies, and Christmas sugar cookies. (Same dough recipe.)
Another trick! Roll out the cookie dough directly on a silicone baking mat or parchment paper so you can easily transfer it to the refrigerator. Pick it up, put it on a baking sheet, and place it in the refrigerator. If you don’t have enough room for two baking sheets in your refrigerator, stack the pieces of rolled out dough on top of each other. (That’s what I do.)
After chilling the rolled out dough, it’s ready to shape and bake:
If you want to bust out your cookie decorating supplies for these vanilla bean shamrock cookies, you can use royal icing or easier cookie icing. Or, use vanilla bean buttercream like the pictured cookies. The vanilla bean buttercream recipe below is similar to regular vanilla buttercream, but makes just enough to frost the batch of cookies whether you use a piping tip, knife, or icing spatula to decorate. And like the sugar cookies, the frosting includes vanilla bean.
We also love these with salted caramel frosting spread on top.
Decorating St. Patrick’s Day Cookies with Buttercream
- This frosting doesn’t really crust: Though the frosting somewhat sets, it doesn’t fully crust. If you prefer a crusting buttercream, you can replace half of the butter with shortening.
- You can tint this frosting: Feel free to tint the vanilla bean buttercream. So the buttercream maintains its consistency, I recommend gel food coloring. I used Americolor leaf green. Though I will say that I loved how the cookies with uncolored buttercream looked because you can really see the vanilla bean specks!
- Make it two-toned: Do you remember when I showed you how to make two-toned frosting roses? Some of the pictured shamrock cookies have two-toned green buttercream. To do that, spoon 2 or more colors of buttercream into your piping bag. I used uncolored buttercream (white-ish) and green. When you pipe, the colors will swirl together and each frosted cookie will look different. Very pretty!
To easily fill a piping bag with frosting, fit the piping bag into a tall cup first. The cup holds the piping bag open and upright which makes it really easy to fill.
And don’t worry, if you totally mess up when decorating cookies with buttercream, sprinkles can hide your mistake. Let me know if you try these vanilla bean cookies—shamrock shaped, decorated, plain, however!
More St. Patrick’s Day Desserts
- Guinness Brownies
- Pistachio Cake
- Baileys & Coffee Cupcakes
- Mint Chocolate Checkerboard Cookies
- Guinness Cupcakes
- Guinness Chocolate Cake
- Lucky Charms Treats
Vanilla Bean St. Patrick’s Day Cookies
- Prep Time: 2 hours
- Cook Time: 12 minutes
- Total Time: 3 hours
- Yield: 24 3-4 inch cookies
- Category: Cookies
- Method: Baking
- Cuisine: American
Description
Using your choice of cookie cutters, you can enjoy these soft-baked vanilla bean sugar cookies as any shape you want. You can leave them plain or decorate with the vanilla bean buttercream listed below or try royal icing or this easy cookie icing instead.
Ingredients
- 2 and 1/4 cups (281g) all-purpose flour (spooned & leveled), plus more as needed for rolling and work surface
- 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 3/4 cup (12 Tbsp; 170g) unsalted butter, softened to room temperature
- 3/4 cup (150g) granulated sugar
- seeds scraped from 1 whole vanilla bean*
- 1 large egg, at room temperature
- 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
Vanilla Bean Buttercream
- 3/4 cup (12 Tbsp; 170g) unsalted butter, softened to room temperature
- seeds scraped from 1/2 of a vanilla bean*
- 3 cups (360g) confectioners’ sugar, sifted (sift after measuring)
- 3 Tablespoons (45ml) heavy cream, half-and-half, or whole milk, at room temperature
- 1 and 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
- salt, to taste
- optional: gel food coloring for tinting
- optional: sprinkles for decorating
Instructions
- Whisk the flour, baking powder, and salt together in a medium bowl. Set aside.
- In a large bowl using a handheld or a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, beat the butter and sugar together on high speed for 1 minute. Add the vanilla bean seeds and beat again until combined and butter is creamy, about 1-2 more minutes. Add the egg and vanilla extract and beat on high speed until combined, about 1 minute. Scrape down the sides and up the bottom of the bowl and beat again as needed to combine.
- Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and beat on low speed until combined. Dough will be a bit soft. If the dough seems too soft and sticky for rolling, add 1 more Tablespoon of flour.
- Divide the dough into 2 equal portions. Place each portion on a piece of lightly floured parchment paper or a lightly floured silicone baking mat. With a lightly floured rolling pin, roll the dough out to about 1/4-inch thickness. Use more flour if the dough seems too sticky. The rolled-out dough can be any shape, as long as it is evenly 1/4-inch thick.
- Lightly dust one of the rolled-out doughs with flour. Place a piece of parchment on top. (This prevents sticking.) Place the 2nd rolled-out dough on top. Cover with plastic wrap or aluminum foil and then refrigerate for at least 1-2 hours and up to 2 days.
- Once chilled, preheat oven to 350°F (177°C). Line 2-3 large baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone baking mats. Carefully remove the top dough piece from the refrigerator. If it’s sticking to the bottom, run your hand under it to help remove it. Using a cookie cutter, cut the dough into shapes. Re-roll the remaining dough and continue cutting until all is used. Repeat with 2nd piece of dough. (Note: It doesn’t seem like a lot of dough, but you get a lot of cookies from the dough scraps you re-roll.)
- Arrange cookies on baking sheets 3 inches apart. Bake for 11-12 minutes or until lightly browned around the edges. If your oven has hot spots, rotate the baking sheet halfway through bake time. Allow cookies to cool on the baking sheet for 5 minutes and then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely before decorating.
- Make the buttercream frosting: With a handheld or stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, beat the butter and vanilla bean seeds together on medium speed until butter is creamy, about 2 minutes. Add confectioners’ sugar, heavy cream, and vanilla extract. Beat on low speed for 30 seconds and then increase to medium-high speed and beat for 2 full minutes. Taste. Add a pinch of salt if frosting is too sweet. To color the frosting, divide the frosting between 2-3 bowls (or however many colors of frosting you want). Stir in 1-2 tiny drops of gel food coloring (or more, depending on your desired color).
- Frost the cooled cookies: You can decorate the cookies with a knife, icing spatula, or use a piping bag and piping tip. Top with sprinkles, if desired. In the pictured cookies, I filled a piping bag with spoonfuls of both green and uncolored frosting and used Ateco 30 piping tip. Pipe hearts as the 3 leaves and a line as the stem.
- Frosting does not harden or crust very much, though you could gently stack 1 frosted cookie on top of another, but expect some slight squishing. Store frosted cookies covered at room temperature for up to 1 day or in the refrigerator for up to 1 week. Store unfrosted cookies covered at room temperature for up to 5 days or in the refrigerator for up to 1 week.
Notes
- Freezing Instructions: Plain or frosted sugar cookies freeze well up to 3 months. Thaw in the refrigerator or at room temperature. You can also freeze the cookie dough for up to 3 months before rolling it out. Prepare the dough through step 3, divide in half, flatten both halves into a disk as we do with pie crust, wrap each in plastic wrap, and then freeze. To thaw, thaw the disks in the refrigerator and then bring to room temperature for about 1 hour. Roll out the dough as directed in step 4 and then chill rolled out dough in the refrigerator for 45 minutes – 1 hour before cutting into shapes and baking.
- Special Tools (affiliate links): Electric Mixer (Handheld or Stand) | Rolling Pin or Adjustable Rolling Pin | Cookie Cutters (I use the small & medium from this Shamrock Cookie Cutter Set) | Baking Sheets | Silicone Baking Mats or Parchment Paper | Optional Gel Food Coloring such as Americolor Leaf Green | Buttercream Piping Tip such as Ateco 30 (what I used in pictured cookies) or Wilton 30 | Piping Bags (Disposable or Reusable)
- Room Temperature: Room temperature butter is essential. If the dough is too sticky, your butter may have been too soft. Room temperature butter is actually cool to the touch. You can read more about it in this room temperature butter post. Room temperature egg is preferred so it’s quickly and evenly mixed into the cookie dough.
- Vanilla Bean: This recipe calls for the seeds from 1 whole vanilla bean in the cookie dough and from 1/2 of a vanilla bean in the frosting. (For extra flavor, feel free to use 1 whole bean in the frosting too.) To get the seeds out of a vanilla bean, use a small knife to cut the vanilla bean lengthwise and then use the dull side of the knife to scrape out the vanilla seeds.
- Using Vanilla Bean Paste Instead: If you have vanilla bean paste, you can use that instead of vanilla bean. Add 1 teaspoon vanilla bean paste when you add the vanilla extract. If you want to replace the vanilla extract AND vanilla bean with vanilla bean paste, add 1 Tablespoon paste when you would add the vanilla extract.
- Can I Tint the Cookie Dough? If you want to skip the icing but are still itching for a green or other colored dessert, you can add a couple drops of gel food coloring when you add the dry ingredients/flour mixture.
- Be sure to check out my top 5 cookie baking tips AND these are my 10 must-have cookie baking tools.
I discovered today that you can convert this recipe into bars and augment w oats, cocoa and protein powder. Half and half flour and wheat flour work well. And the batter’s moist enough I’ll drop an extra egg in next time and oil and convert into brownies! Just convert the heat/time. Either way, I recommend a touch more mint extract. 1 tsp wasn’t quite enough. But I like mint.
Hey sally can you please make vanilla bean St patrol’s day cookies
I love this recipe so much
These cookies were delicious but I found the first batch spread out terribly! The second batch went super soft and gooey so I sprinkled and rolled with tons of flour and they turned out perfect. Should I just add extra flour to the recipe?
Hi MariLynn! Did you chill the dough as directed? That step is imperative for these sugar cookies! Also make sure to use proper room temperature butter.
Making 3 of your recipes for our St Patrick’s Day on Sunday. The Shamrock cookies, Soda Bread and the Mint Chocolate Chip Cheesecake Brownies.
Making 3 of your recipes for our St. Patrick’s Day on Sunday. Vanilla Bean Shamrocks, your Gramdother’s Soda Bread, and the Mint Chocolate Chip Cheesecake Brownies.
These recipes all call for Unsalted Butter. Not something I usually buy. What would be your “Salted Butter” measurements for these recipes. And lastly, why use Unsalted butter over regular butter? Thanks so much.
Hi Peggy! Here’e everything you need to know about salted vs. unsalted butter in baking.
Can you chill it in a ball?
Hi Brigid, we recommend chilling the dough rolled out, it’s our favorite trick for sugar cookies!
Made these for a St. Pattys Day gathering. Came out perfect! I don’t know that my oven has hot spots, but I did rotate the cookies mid way through baking. I don’t think I have every had cookies so perfectly baked. Great taste too. Loved by all.
These sound so good. Can I make these as regular cookies rolled into balls?
Hi Barbara, these are best as cut-out cookies. What you could try is rolling them into a log like icebox cookies, then slicing into circles to make simple round cookies. Or here is our drop sugar cookie recipe. You can leave the sprinkles out and add some vanilla bean to that recipe.
If I use the drop sugar cookie recipe, would I just substitute equal amount of vanilla bean paste?
Hi Barbara, yes, you can swap the vanilla extract for the same amount of vanilla bean paste.
I put my frosting in the fridge and plan to bake the cookies tomorrow and frost them. Will the frosting be ok letting it sit til room temp then putting on the cookies?
Hi Rhonda, that should work, although you may need to add a small splash of heavy cream/half-and-half/milk and re-whip the frosting for a minute or two to help bring it back to pipeable consistency. Enjoy!
This recipe was AMAZING! I don’t usually post reviews and I have made so many of Sally’s recipes but this one is one of the best I’ve tried. It was my first time using vanilla beans and the flavor is amazing!
I love these cookies Sally! I am adding them to my Christmas cookie list!
Hi Sally, if u don’t have vanilla bean or vanilla bean paste, can u just use vanilla extract?
Hi Clare, you can use 2 teaspoons of vanilla extract as written or increase to 2 and 1/2 teaspoons for a little extra flavor.
My daughter and I had a wonderful time decorating and devouring these delicious cookies! Since I am not a baker, your recipes are the only I use when I have to make desserts. I know you have tested everything to an exact science, and that’s exactly what I need. I no longer make desserts I have to throw in the trash.
So glad you and your daughter had fun making these together, Laura!
To make the frosting crusting a bit you said to add shortening. Crisco or margarine?
Hi Kristen, we usually use Crisco.
This is great!! This makes a lot of cookies, and if you do it right, they taste soooo good!! Most definitely a favorite! I see some comments saying that it flattened even after chilling it for the time that it needed. I didn’t chill mine at all except for maybe 5 minutes while the oven was still preheating, maybe try that if you’re having the problem.
This is basically the only sugar cookie recipe I make now. The addition of the vanilla beans and extra vanilla flavor really take these over the top, and I always get rave reviews on these.
I made three tries at this recipe for Easter (same recipe, different shapes) but they still spread out so thin while baking that the shapes became unrecognizable. The first 2x I chilled the dough for 2 hours (I used granulated honey the first time and white sugar the second), and the third time the dough chilled overnight. At that point I just used a biscuit cutter for round cookies, and they tasted great but did not retain their thickness. I adapted the bunny sugar cookie recipe last fall which is nearly identical and they turned out fine (using whole grain hard & soft white flour with granulated honey), so I don’t know what happened here. Ideas?
Hi Terry, I can’t give exact troubleshooting advice because I haven’t tested this recipe with granulated honey before. It’s odd that the same cookie recipe worked last fall and didn’t the other day– both recipes are the same only this one includes vanilla bean. Perhaps the temperature was just warmer in your kitchen and the dough became too soft? That would be my first guess. You can always chill the shaped cookies in the refrigerator for a few minutes as the oven preheats. The colder the dough, the less likely the sugar cookies will lose shape.
I loved these cookies so much! They are easy to make and shape. I love that you always include instructions to make these over a couple of days. Best sugar cookies I’ve ever had!
I love this recipe! I have always dreaded cut outs as they are sometimes overwhelming to me for some reason. I enjoyed making these but have a question. The flour says 2 and 1/4 cups or 281 grams. When I measured it out I used a 2 cup measuring cup and I did tare the cup empty prior to weighing. It weighed 282! I didn’t over fill it and also mixed the flour up before I started weighing it out. That didn’t include the 1/4 of a cup! Any suggestions? Thanks!
Hi MB! We have a detailed post on measuring baking ingredients that will be helpful. While spooning and leveling our flour does get us 125 grams per cup, we always say that “A cup isn’t always a cup, but a gram or ounce is always a gram or ounce!” Basically, when in doubt go by the weight!
What type of food coloring do you use (Brand name) to get accurate coloring, along with unique colors?
Hi Jan, we always use gel food coloring for most vibrant colors, Americolor makes great gel food colors and is our go-to!
Hi, Sally! Where did you get the gold sprinkles?? Thanks!
Just the grocery store! I’ve seen them at Michaels too. You can purchase online– Wilton gold sugar sprinkles.
These look amazing! Do you think you could dip them half in chocolate? Like some of the shortbread cookies. If so, what chocolate would you use? Thanks!
Yes, absolutely! You could even do white chocolate so the flavor doesn’t overpower the vanilla bean as much. I recommend white chocolate baking bars such as Ghirardelli– you can find them in the baking aisle. 2 4-ounce bars would be enough.
How much Vanilla bean paste what do you use for this recipe ?I would like to try it
Hi Rebecca! See recipe notes for details on using vanilla bean paste.
hi Sally – can you just use vanilla extract for this recipe (instead of using vanilla bean and/or vanilla bean paste)? thanks so much.
Absolutely. Though the more vanilla extract you add, the more you could throw off the consistency of the dough– so I do recommend vanilla bean for the most vanilla flavor in there. If desired, skip it entirely or you can increase pure vanilla extract to 2 and 1/2 teaspoons.
thanks, Sally! how much vanilla extract would i use in place of the vanilla bean paste? is it the 2 1/2 teaspoons that you mentioned in your reply? sorry – i’m not really at ease in the kitchen!!
Hi Catherine! There is no vanilla bean paste in this recipe– I mention it in the notes just in case readers would like to add it. If you don’t have vanilla beans and do not have vanilla bean paste, you can use 2 teaspoons of vanilla extract as written or increase to 2 and 1/2 teaspoons for a little extra flavor.
Love this recipe. It’s just the best. I won’t use any other in future
Sally, I nodded my head when I read your suggestion to roll the dough BEFORE chilling. I do something even more drastic. I roll my dough between sheets of parchment paper, in small amounts, as you also suggested, and then I FREEZE the dough on my cookie sheet, for about 20 minutes, just so it hardens but not rock hard. Remove the cookies from the freezer, peel off both sides of the parchment paper. Return the dough to one of the parchment sheets and cut the cookies out. This prevents them from over sticking to the parchment, as you have already released them by peeling the bottom layer off. Makes it so much easier to cleanly cut cookies, they release better from the cookie cutters, and they don’s lose shape at all when transferring them from the parchment paper to the baking sheet.
LOVE that tip, Janet! Thank you for sharing!
You are very welcome, I hope you try it!