Shortbread Shamrocks with Green Tea Icing

This seems like a good week for keeping things simple. With only five ingredients and a couple of steps, shortbread cookies make up for those relationships where you did all the work.

Shortbread Recipe

1 cup butter
3/4 cup powdered sugar, plus 1 cup for icing
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2-1/2 cups plain flour

green tea extract
light corn syrup

Preheat oven to 350. Cream butter in bowl of mixer, then add powdered sugar 1/4 cup at a time, continuing to mix on low speed until sugar is incorporated. Add vanilla and mix. Add flour, 1/2 cup at a time, again while gently mixing, only until ingredients are incorporated.

At this point, you can just press two rounds of dough onto a large baking sheet and cut into 8 wedges each to bake for 20 to 25 minutes. If you have a bit more energy and are craving shapes, roll out onto floured board to about 1/2" thickness and cut out. The buttery dough makes greasing your baking sheets unnecessary.

I baked my shamrocks for about 15 minutes, until the sides started to brown slightly, then cooled on a rack so they were ready for icing. Per my usual glossy ice, I added green tea concentrate (instead of milk) to a cup of powdered sugar until good spreading/drizzling consistency, then added a teaspoon of light corn syrup for shine. Drizzle this over cooled cookies. Now, what do you take in your tea?