Leprechaun Gold Coin Cookies

[Snoopy]

Leprechaun Gold Coin Cookies

1 cup butter at room temperature
1 cup sugar
1 large Egg
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
3 cups Flour

1. In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream together butter and sugar. Beat until smooth. Add in egg and beat until well incorporated, scraping down the bowl, if necessary. Add in vanilla. Beat until smooth. With mixer on low, add in salt and flour. Mix until completely incorporated and dough is uniform. Shape dough into a cylinder with a diameter of about 2 inches. Wrap in parchment paper and freeze for at least 25 minutes.
 
2. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Slice dough into 1/8 inch disks and place on baking sheets, about a half inch apart. Once you have made 30 cookies, wrap up the cookie dough, freeze, and save for another time. Bake for 8 minutes. Place on a cooling rack and let cool completely.  Frost the cooled cookies with the Golden Icing (below)

 

GOLDEN ICING

1 large Egg – separated, keeping the egg white

2 to 2 ½ cups powdered sugar

½ teaspoon lemon extract

Yellow food coloring

 

Whisk egg white in a small bowl at high speed until foamy

Gradually add powdered sugar, lemon extract, and yellow food coloring

Increase mixer speed to high and whisk until icing is stiff

 

The Gold Coin Cookie Story (as told by my kids when they submitted it and won a contest)

I am 10 years old, and every year my younger brother (8) and I would set up leprechaun traps for St. Patrick’s Day hoping to catch the leprechaun and get his pot of gold.  The leprechaun would play tricks on us turning the milk, and the water in the toilet green, or draw green mustaches on us while we slept.  Every year he would leave us these cookies.  We still have not caught the leprechaun, but this past year he forgot to clean up the mess in our kitchen and we found his recipe!