Shamrock Cookie

A “shamrock cookie” is one specialty that is made for St. Patrick’s Day. Shamrock cookies are usually sugar cookies, shaped into a shamrock (clover) and sprinkled with green sanding sugar.
 
‘Shamrock cookies” have been cited in print since 1912.
 
 
Wikipedia: St. Patrick’s Day
Saint Patrick’s Day (Irish: Lá Fhéile Pádraig) is a yearly holiday celebrated on 17 March. It is named after Saint Patrick (circa AD 387–461), the most commonly recognized of the patron saints of Ireland. It began as a purely Christian holiday and became an official feast day in the early 1600s. However, it has gradually become more of a secular celebration of Ireland’s culture.
 
It is a public holiday on the island of Ireland; including Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland, as well as in Newfoundland and Labrador and in Montserrat. It is also widely celebrated by the Irish diaspora, especially in places such as Great Britain, Canada, the United States, Argentina, Australia, New Zealand, and Montserrat, among others.
 
Wikipedia; Shamrock
The shamrock is a symbol of Ireland. It is a three-leafed old white clover. It is sometimes of the variety Trifolium repens (a white clover, known in Irish as seamair bhán) but today usually Trifolium dubium (a lesser clover, Irish: seamair bhuí).

The diminutive version of the Irish word for “clover” (“seamair”) is “seamróg”, which was anglicised as “shamrock”, representing a close approximation of the original Irish pronunciation. However, other three-leafed plants — such as black medic (Medicago lupulina), red clover (Trifolium pratense), and wood-sorrel (genus Oxalis) — are sometimes designated as shamrocks. The shamrock was traditionally used for its medical properties and was a popular motif in Victorian times.
   
eHOW
How to Make St. Patrick’s Day Shamrock Cookies
Have some fun this St. Patrick’s Day with special cookies for the occasion. Bring them to a St. Patrick’s Day party, and everyone will want to eat one of your lucky cookies. Eating these lucky treats is only part of the fun though. The most fun comes from making your St. Patrick’s Day shamrock cookies.
   
10 March 1912, San Jose (CA) Mercury News, pg. 35 ad:
Shamrock Cookies
(Doerr’s—ed.)
 
14 March 1913, Flint (MI) Journal, pg. 19 ad:
SHAMROCK COOKIES
for
St. Patrick’s Day
(Model Bakery—ed.)
 
20 March 1913, Janesville (WI) Daily Gazette, pg. 9, col. 5:
Shamrock Cookies.
Mix one-half cup butter with one cup brown sugar; add one egg well beaten, a little salt, one-half cup sweet milk, one-half grated nutmeg, one teaspoon each of cinnamon and ginger, three cups of sifted flour (more may be needed to make the dough stiff enought), one-half teaspoon baking soda dissolved in one tablespoon boiling water.
 
Mix in order given.
 
Roll thin. Cut with “club” cutter from “card party” cutters, press some pieces of nuts into them and bake.
 
Make a frosting of the juice of one lemon, a little salt and enough powdered sugar to make a thick mixture and 10 to 15 drops of green food coloring. Spread over cookies.
 
This makes about 18 cookies, which are very pretty as well as good.
   
Google News Archive
20 March 1922, Miami (FL) Daily Metropolis, pg. 7, col. 1:
It was indeed a “green party,” as this color was even carried out in the delicious refreshments, which consisted of green limeade, mint jello, whipped cream and shamrock cookies.
 
Google News Archive
13 March 1931, Palm Beach (FL) Post, “Irish Stews and St. Patrick’s Menus,” pg. 10, col. 4:
And a green salad or a mint gelatin molded salad and shamrock cookies with peppermint ice cream colored green served with a few emeraldettes for decoration.
 
Google News Archive
27 March 1939, Gettysburg (PA) Times, pg. 8, cols. 5-7:
(Also printed here on March 4th—ed.)
Shamrock Cookies
Sgure and this cooky recipe comes direct from Ireland:
 
One-half cup shortening; one cup sugar; two well-beaten eggs; one tablespoon milk; one-half teaspoon salt; two teaspoons baking powder; one teaspoon salt; teaspoon flavoring; flour, enough to roll, (about one and one-half cups).
 
Combine the shortening, and the sugar. Add eggs, milk and one cup of the flour, sifted with the baking powder and salt. Add enough additional flour to make the dough easy to roll. Add flavoring. Chill.
 
Cut with shamrock cutter. Brush with egg white and sprinkle with green sugar. The latter can be bought, or it can be made by mixing green coloring with granulated sugar and allowing it to dry. Bake on a greased cooky sheet in a moderate oven ten minutes.
   
Google Books
Parties for young Americans
By Dorothy Gladys Spicer
New York, NY: Womans Press
1940
Pg. 23:
SHAMROCK COOKIES.
Cut hard sugar cookies into shamrock shapes and frost with green icing or sprinkle with green sugar.
 
Brown Eyed Baker (March 10, 2010)
St. Patrick’s Day Shamrock Cookies
St. Patrick’s Day is a week away and there are certainly throngs of people preparing for all-green celebrations starting this weekend. Once the green beer starts flowing, you’ll be in need of snacks. Always a crowd favorite, I love any excuse to decorate sugar cookies, so I couldn’t let St. Patrick’s Day float on by without dressing up some shamrocks. I made a few different varieties, but I think I’m partial to the sprinkles and the smiley. Check out the close-ups below and let me know which is your favorite!
 
A simple cookie that was sprinkled with green sanding sugar immediately after the royal icing went on, so it would stick:...