For the past three years I have been called upon to bake the cookie of one friend’s husband’s childhood memories. A small, buttery cookie brought to life with shimmering colored sugar. Spritz! Now I had never heard of nor sampled any spritz before my friend made this request. It is now a tradition!
December 2016 came around and it was time to whip up a batch of the small delectable cookies. After gathering all of the ingredients and the cookie press I headed over to my friend’s house. Got the dough made – which is a basic butter dough. Here’s where it got interesting. Now I only make this once a year, so far, and as such I do not regularly pull out the spritz cookie press. With dough made, cookie sheets at the ready, oven preheated, it was time to fill the press and start the cookie making! As I begin to assemble the press it became clear that one small, integral piece was missing…the cap…the piece that holds the design discs onto the press. Time to pull out some MacGyver skills. After trying to hold the design disc on the press as I squeezed the cookie dough through, and when that failed, duct taping the disc onto the press, I began to give up, felt defeated. How could I tell this man he was not going to have his favorite cookies this year?! When my friend suggested her elderly neighbor might have one, because out of everyone she would be the one to be in possession of an illustrious spritz cookie press…and ta da, she did!! And a fancy one from Pampered Chef at that!
So crisis averted! Cookies were pressed onto the baking sheets, sprinkled with colored sugar and placed into the oven that had been waiting so patiently as we troubleshooted. Impatiently waiting was her husband, who was on a stalking mission of the kitchen. As each cookie sheet was removed from the oven, a cookie or two were sampled by the spritz aficionado! They were approved.
Spritz Cookies Recipe
Ingredients:
3 cups flour
1 cup confectioner’s sugar
1 cup unsalted butter, cut in pieces
1/2 teaspoon salt
4 egg yolks
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Colored sugar
Directions:
Place the flour, sugar, butter and salt into the bowl of a food processor. Process until mixture in the texture of coarse meal.
In a small bowl, lightly beat the egg yolks and vanilla together. With the motor of the food processor running, add the egg mixture, and process just until dough forms.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Fill the spritz cookie press, form the cookies on baking sheets. Decorate with colored sugar (or other decorations if desired) and bake for 10 to 15 minutes – until edges are firm, not brown. Cool on racks for 1 to 2 minutes. Enjoy!!
The spritz along with the other goodies made for the holidays in 2016!
