Easy Christmas Cookies: Classic Spritz Cookie – The holidays are a crazy time of year, but I always set aside time for baking Christmas cookies to give to my family and friends. The Classic Spritz Cookie is one of my favorites because of it’s versatility. With the same cookie I make about three different versions. One with maraschino cherries, the next with Hershey Chocolates, and the last one just plain. There are many different versions of the Spritz cookie with only slight differences, but my favorite one was the one that came with my Pampered Chef Cookie Press. I wasn’t the biggest fan of the press itself, but the recipe always seemed to work for me. The recipe below talks about using the cookie press, but I have also used them with cookie cutters. This year I actually threw out the cookie press because I was getting just too frustrated with it. You can see in the above picture I just rolled the dough into balls then pushed a cherry into the center. In the below picture you can see I used a round cookie cutter and made a chocolate pillow. Very Tasty!
Ingredients:
- 1½ cups butter (3 sticks), softened
- 1 cup sugar
- 1 egg
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 3½ cups all-purpose flour
Directions:
- Preheat the oven to 375°F/190°C. In a large mixing bowl, beat the butter and sugar on medium speed of the electric mixer about 3 minutes or until creamy, scraping down the sides as necessary. Add the egg and vanilla; beat well. Add the flour; mix on low speed just until blended, scraping down the sides as necessary. (The dough will be soft; do not refrigerate.)
- Fit the Cookie Press with the desired disk (see Cook’s Tip) and fill it with the dough. Press the dough onto the Cookie Sheet 1″ (2.5 cm) apart. Decorate the cookies with colored sugar or sprinkles, cherries, or chocolate if desired. Just plain is delicious as well! Bake 10-12 minutes or until the edges are light golden brown. Cool the cookies 2 minutes on the cookie sheet, then remove to the cooling rack.
Easy Christmas Cookies: Cappuccino Crinkles