Mint Shamrock Sandwich Cookies

Happy St. Patrick's Day! In honor of the Irish holiday and my Irish heritage, Mike and I are celebrating with potato dishes and these Mint Shamrock Sandwich Cookies...

These cute shamrock shaped cookies are sweet and sinful; definitely As Good As Gluten! They taste like a mint cream Oreo, which I'm not sure even exist. But a gluten free version does in my kitchen now, and it is delicious.

Two summers ago my family vacationed in Europe, which included a four day trip to Dublin. Mike and I absolutely loved Dublin; we had a blast. We reminisce about Ireland every St. Patrick's Day; I can't wait to go back someday.

In my cookie recipe, you'll notice that I colored the mint cream filling with spinach juice. Yes, you read that right, spinach juice. Don't worry, you can't taste even a hint of it. If you prefer to use green food coloring, it will work in place of the spinach juice. I would assume that the juice from any other green vegetable would also work.

You may be wondering how did I make spinach juice? With my Jack LaLanne Power Juicer. I haven't wrote about juicing on my blog before, but if you're interested I can post more about it another day. The cliff notes version is that my mom has been juicing for years upon years. My siblings and I dreaded "juice shots" when we were growing up. Now that we're grown and finally believe the benefits my mom has been telling us for years about juicing, we request a juice every time we go home. We've also upgraded from shots of juice to full glasses. The benefits of juicing are immense, and Mike and I juice a few times a month. My favorite juice growing up was Apple-Carrot juice, but lately Mike and I have been enjoying Apple-Orange-Carrot-Spinach juices. Which is where the inspiration to use spinach juice as a natural food coloring source came from.

Now that I've digressed to my Ireland and juicing, back to the delicious cookie recipe...

Mint Shamrock Sandwich Cookies
Adapted from my gluten free Oreo Cookies recipe

Chocolate Wafer Ingredients:
·¾ cup brown rice flour
·½ cup potato starch
·½ cup unsweetened cocoa powder
·1 tsp baking soda
·¼ tsp baking powder
·¼ tsp salt
·1 cup sugar
·½ cup & 2 TBS butter, softened
·1 egg
Cream Filling Ingredients:
·¼ cup butter, softened
·¼ cup Crisco
·1½ cups powdered sugar
·1½ tsp mint extract
·3-4 tsp spinach juice

Directions:
Preheat oven to 375˚. In the kitchen mixer bowl, thoroughly mix the dry cookie ingredients. While on low speed, add the butter and then the egg. Continue mixing until the dough comes together in a mass.

On a silicone baking mat or greased surface, use a rolling pin to roll cookie dough out until ¼ - ½ inch thick. Use a cookie cutter to cut dough into shamrock shapes. Place shamrock cookies onto a baking sheet, lined with parchment paper, three to four inches apart.

Bake for 8-10 minutes. Set baking sheets on stovetop to cool for 10 minutes, before transferring to a cookie rack to cool for 10 more minutes.

To make the cream filling, place butter and Crisco in a kitchen mixing bowl. At low speed, gradually beat in the powdered sugar and mint. Add the spinach juice for coloring and turn the mixer on high. Beat for 2-3 minutes until filling is light and fluffy.

To assemble the cookies, spoon or pipe cream filling onto the bottom center of one cookie. Place another cookie, equal in size to the first, on top of the cream. Lightly press to work the filling evenly to the outsides of the cookie.

Yield: approximately 25 shamrock sandwich cookies, depending on the size of your cookie cutter


I've also shared this recipe on: This Week's Craving, Slightly Indulgent Tuesday