Spritz Cookies

It has been years since I made spritz cookies, but I had the opportunity to make some when my son had to make something handmade for their gift exchange. He wanted to make chocolate chip oatmeal cookies, which I bake almost every week, but I was able to convince him to make spritz cookies instead so we can make some Christmas tree cookies. He agreed, but only if we added some chocolate chip morsels to the cookies.

He measured the ingredients, mixed them, then after I put the dough inside the cookie press, he made the first batch for his classmate (photo below), while I finished the rest.


I made other kinds of shapes, such as these flowers.


We then packaged the cookies like a candy roll. And since the theme of their Christmas party was Scandinavian, I made the heart basket, which is a common fixture in Swedish Christmas trees.




Recipe:

1-1/2 cups butter or margarine
1 cup sugar
1 egg
2 tablespoons milk
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 teaspoon almond extract (optional)
4 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder

Preheat oven to 400F. Thoroughly cream butter and sugar. Add egg, milk, vanilla, and almond extract; beat well. Stir together flour and baking powder; gradually add to creamed mixture, mixing to make a smooth dough. Do not chill. Place dough into cookie press and press cookies onto ungreased cookie sheet. Bake 6-8 minutes, remove cookies from sheet; cool on rack.
Makes 6 dozen cookies.