St. Patrick's Day Cookies

I am very very sad to say that I did not get any pictures of these! They were adorable too! We had clovers, leprechauns, and pipes. Alas…I did not. The recipe I used is a recipe I use a lot for my cut cookies. I got it from a friend from high school. He gave homemade heart cookies for Valentine’s Day and I thought the cookies were amazing, so asked for the recipe. So via note in between classes he gave me his grandmother’s cookie recipe:

1 ½ cups sugar
¾ cup shortening (I know it’s strange it’s not butter, but I swear they are great! I’m sure they’d be even better with butter.)
½ cup buttermilk (you can also substitute 1 tablespoon vinegar and then filling to ½ cup with milk-let stand for 5 minutes. I usually do this, since I don’t normally have buttermilk in my fridge.)
2 eggs
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon lemon juice
3 ¼ cup flour

Cream together shortening and sugar, before adding the eggs and buttermilk. Mix dry ingredients together, then combine with the creamed mixture, along with the lemon juice. Chill for AT LEAST 1 hour. (I find that longer works out better, because it is such a soft dough to work with.) Roll out ¼ inch think and cut into desired shapes. Bake in an oven for 8-10 minutes at 375˚.

I usually always use this recipe whenever I make cut out rolled cookies. They are a nice basic cookie that isn’t too sweet when paired with frosting. They also stay very soft, which is what I like most about them.