Shamrock Brownies

Happy St. Patricks Day!

The kids at work requested brownies when I asked them what treat they wanted for St. Patrick's Day. I wanted to make them green, but also do something more unique then sprinkles or M & Ms. I've seen lots of heart decorations where you place a dot of icing on  fresh icing and then drag a toothpick through it to make a heart. I wondered what would happen if you merged four dots together to make a shamrock. The results turned out quite cute. I didn't have time to make brownies from scratch, so this isn't much of a recipe as it is wishing all of you a happy St. Patrick's Day!

Powdered Sugar Icing

2 1/2-3 cups shifted powdered sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 tablespoons very soft butter

3-5 tablespoon milk

Add powdered sugar to a large bowl. Add wet indgredients and mix until smooth. Add more milk or powdered sugar until desired sonsistancy is reached. For the bownies I wanted it fairly thick so it could be spread without running over the sides too much.

How to make a shamrock brownie:

Bake favorite brownies, let them cool and then cut into 2 inch squares.

Place 1/4 cup of the icing in a bowl and add enough green dye to make it bright green (around 4-5 drops). Dye the rest of the icing a nice light green (around 4-5 drops as well). Frost the tops of the brownies with the light green. Take a toothpick and dip it in the darker green frosting. Using the toothpick, drop four equal sized dots in a square onto the top of the brownie. Then drag the toothpick through each dot towards the center of the square. This should look like four raindrops pointing inward. Dip the toothpick in the darker icing, place in the middle of the suquare, and drag down to form the stem.  Let the icing dry for an hour or place in the freezer for 15-20 minutes or until hard.