Cindy "TheSweetNerd" Rodriguez Come March, I find that St. Patty’s Day can’t arrive soon enough. Immediately my mind jumps to shades of green everywhere, shamrocks, and those silly little pinches you’ll get for not wearing green. This rolled cake-cookie – officially dubbed the St. Patty’s Surprise Inside Cookie – is festive, green, and a yummy treat. With only 7 ingredients, including the sprinkles, you’ll be pleased to find how easy this recipe is! This year St. Patty’s Day falls on a Saturday, so the plan is to invite a few of the boys’ friends over, and pair this green drink with fruit shamrocks with the cookies to complete the party. I’m fairly certain St. Patrick himself would approve of such a dessert table.
4 EASY STEPS TO A LUCKY SURPRISE
- Make the dough
- Cut out the shamrocks
- Shape and roll
- Bake
This recipe was adapted from Eugenie Kitchen’s darling Rainbow Heart Cookies.
STEP 1: THE DOUGH
One of the biggest take-aways from this recipe is that the dough needs to be slightly chilled to assemble. Each chilling period should really take a full hour, so give yourself time to come back to this recipe in steps. Patience, folks! I promise the time and effort will be worth it.
With that being said, mix up the dough and roll it out, splitting it into thirds. Apply green food color to one third. Give it a good knead so that the color is distributed evenly. Chill in the fridge for one hour.
STEP 2: THE SHAMROCKS
Roll out the green dough and cut using a shamrock cookie cutter. Pile up the shamrocks but make sure to brush an egg wash in-between the shamrocks. Put back in the fridge for an hour.
STEP 3: SHAPE AND ROLL
Take the vanilla dough and wrap the shamrock stack like a cylinder. Put back in the fridge for one hour.
Brush the wrapped-and-stacked cookies with egg wash, and roll in sprinkles. You’ve nearly reached the end of the rainbow, folks!
Slice the cookies where it feels like there’s some give. Stick back in the fridge for a final 30 minutes (last time, I promise!).
Bake for 10-12 minutes at 350 degrees. There you have it! There’s a slice of luck with each St. Patty’s Surprise Inside Cookie for ya lasses and laddies.
OUR FAVES
Photos by: Maria Hedrick Photography
1In a Kitchen Aid, whip the butter until aerated. 2Add in confectioners' sugar. 3Stir in vanilla, salt, and egg yolks. 4Fold in cake flour. 5Transfer to clean working surface and knead. 6Split the dough into thirds, and color 1/3rd part green and knead throughout so color is evenly distributed. 7Chill in the refrigerator for 1 hour. 8Roll out the green cookie dough. The thickness of each cookie dough sheet should be adjusted to the size of your shamrock cookie cutter. 9Pile up your shamrocks by brushing egg wash between the sheets. And let set in the refrigerator for 1 hour. 10Now carefully cover the shamrock cookie roll with small pieces of vanilla dough and make a cylinder. Let set in the refrigerator for 1 hour. 11Brush the dough with egg wash and roll in the bed of rainbow sprinkles. 12Slice the dough and let set in the refrigerator for 30 minutes. Then bake for 10-12 minutes at 350 F. or until light brown. 13Let cool on the pan for 5 minutes. Then transfer to a wire rack and completely cool.Directions
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These cookies look absolutely delicious and so pretty and festive!
Thanks Catherine. The truth is, the sugar cookie is delicious! You’re spot on.
These are so cute and festive! Loving the sprinkles on the outside of the cookies too.
Super festive. I love St. Patty’s Day – it makes March a little more manageable. 😉
This is so very clever! I would never have thought of piling up the shamrocks like that! And those sprinkles make these cookies so much fun!
In my opinion, the sprinkles really make these cookies. I love the rainbow rims with the green dough.
I have always wanted to make these instead of buy them. They’re so cute and not as hard as I thought!
Right? Totally agree. It’s a surprise inside AND a surprise to me how easy they are to make.
How cute are those and I loved the tutorial. Shared!
Thank you so much for the share!! That means a lot Jacqueline.
These are so darn cute! I love how easy they are and kids would love to make them
Great point – kids would love to make them. This recipe translates to any shapes you want, for any holiday.
I love these! Plus they’re so much healthier (maybe?) and fresher than the store-bought cut and slice dough. Super cute!
They are healthier because you know every single ingredient that is going into the dough. Not so with the store bought!
I never knew how to get the shapes inside the cookie – thanks for enlightening me!
You’re welcome – easier than you would think, right?
Great shamrocks. It”s Friday, the 13th so I”m running late this year. But great shamrock patterns I can use next year and great job by your son. I”m going to add Skip to My Lou to my blog as soon as my computer is working consistently again. Thanks for sharing.