Frank's Red Hot used to have a commercial where an old woman would say "I puts that sh*t on everything." This statement tends to apply to me, except instead of hot sauce it is Bailey's Irish cream liqueur, and I love putting it in baked goods. Especially around St. Patrick's Day, when I feel like all baked goods should incorporate Irish liquors. These Bailey's Irish Cream Sugar Cookies incorporate Irish cream in two places. It doesn't always have to be Irish cream though, I'm a big fan of putting Guinness in chocolate cakes, and Irish whiskey in ganaches. You can see my Boozy Irish Cake with all three of those incorporated here.
Cakes are hard to make and take a lot of work though. Cookies are much easier to make. These Irish Cream sugar cookies are fairly simple, and taste amazing because there is Irish cream in both the cookie dough and the frosting. I don't recommend skipping the frosting, but if you don't want to take the extra step you can skip it and just make the cookies (with or without the sprinkles). They still taste really good. If you want to add the sprinkles and skip the frosting, just add them to the top of the cookie dough before baking them.
But if you want the extra flavor, you definitely wont want to skip the frosting. It's really creamy and delicious, and the Irish cream isn't too overpowering. Its hard not to lick up all the frosting and eat it just by itself.
Bailey's Irish Cream Sugar Cookies
Sugar cookies with frosting
- Prep Time: 15 minutes
- Cook Time: 15 minutes
- Total Time: 30 minutes
- Yield: 24 cookies 1x
- Category: Dessert
Ingredients
- ½ cup butter (softened)
- ½ cup granulated sugar
- ¼ cup brown sugar
- 1 egg
- ¼ cup Irish cream liqueur
- 1 ⅔ cups all purpose flour
- ¼ tsp salt
- ½ tsp baking soda
Frosting
- 1 cup butter (softened)
- 2.5 cups powdered sugar
- 4 tbsp Irish cream liqueur
- sprinkles (optional)
Instructions
- Cream together the butter and sugars until fluffy. Add in the egg and Irish cream and mix until well combined.
- In a separate bowl combine flour, salt and baking soda. Add flour mixture to wet ingredients and stir together. Form into a ball, wrap with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least an hour.
- Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
- Using a cookie scoop, or a spoon, drop evenly sized balls of cookie dough onto ungreased cookie sheets. Flatten cookie balls slightly (as these cookies don't spread much). If you aren't going to put frosting on the cookies, you can put sprinkles on the dough at this stage before baking.
- Bake in preheated oven until the cookies are golden brown, 12-15 minutes. Cool completely before frosting.
Frosting
- Using a mixer, whip the butter for about a minute until it is fluffy, then gradually add in the powdered sugar until it comes together as frosting. Add in the Irish cream and whip for another minute, until it is well incorporated.
- Once cookies are completely cooled, spread frosting evenly on each cookie. Top with sprinkles if desired. Serve immediately, or store covered in the fridge.
