It’s not easy being green—especially for a cookie on St. Patrick’s Day. There are so many ways to flavor and decorate your cookies for this green-hued holiday, we can’t even list them all! But here’s a few of our favorites.

 

Shamrocks

You can’t have an Irish holiday without the iconic shamrock. Cover shamrock-shaped sugar cookies in gooey icing or pipe on a masterpiece with different shades of green. There are plenty of ways to decorate or you can use some of the ideas below to make your shamrock cookie dough green without food coloring.

 

Pot of Gold

Finding the treasure at the end of the rainbow is difficult, but making a pot of gold for yourself is easy when it’s a cookie. Shape, bake and decorate with green icing and gold sprinkles (yellow works too!). Make your cookies 3-D by creating dark chocolate cookie balls and drizzling them with caramel.

 

Chocolate Chip

You can go about a St. Patrick’s Day chocolate chip cookie three different ways. 1) Make the dough green and use regular chocolate chips. 2) Leave the dough natural and use green chocolate chips. 3) Color your dough green and use green chocolate chips! No matter how you do it, you’ll have the most festive cookies on the block.

 

M&M

These little candies are useful for a variety of baking needs, but our favorite is when we stick them into our cookie dough, of course! Only the green M&Ms—it is St. Patty’s Day. Spell out letters or make designs with your M&Ms. Bake a big batch to share with the kids or take to the office. You can’t go wrong with a custom styled cookie!

 

Mint

Mint is a flavor that compliments so many different cookies. Wrap a green mint in a dark chocolate dough and bake. When you bite into it, there’s a fun green surprise in the middle. Add a few drops of spearmint extract to your favorite chocolate chip cookie recipe and you’ve suddenly got mint chocolate chip cookies.

 

Matcha

Tea has long been used as a flavoring for cookies and other baked goods. Its strong aromas and dough-coloring capabilities make it a perfect flavoring to create naturally green cookies. Finding just the right amount of matcha for your recipe is tricky so you may have to make several batches. Don’t worry, I’m sure your family won’t mind eating the rejected ones. They are still cookies, after all.

 

Pistachio

If tea isn’t your favorite, try pistachio. As they say, you can’t have just one…pistachio cookie, that is! Although we’re used to seeing bright green, pistachios won’t color your cookies this way on their own. Add a couple drops of green coloring to your dough or cover in bright green sprinkles to get the St. Patrick’s Day effect.

 

All-Natural Food Coloring

If you prefer your St. Patrick’s Day to be a little more authentic, try going for naturally made food dyes. You can make your own with recipes for both fruit and vegetable-based colors. There are also several brands that sell pre-made natural food coloring in your local stores or online.

 

Any of these cookies will make your tastebuds green with envy (and with icing). Celebrate St. Patrick’s Day the way you celebrate every other holiday—with cookies!