12 Days of Christmas Cookies: Classic Spritz Cookies

Since I am stuffed to the gills with cookies, today’s post comes from my sister, Jaki!

12 batches of cookies in 25 days is a big task to take on, even for a fatkidinside sister of mine. So, being the kind, caring, concerned sister that I am, I decided to take one for the team and bake a batch of cookies with our little cousins and do a guest blog.

For the past 3 months, I’ve been living in the Maldives, a chain of islands on the equator in the Middle East. During my time there, Halloween and Thanksgiving went by without me even realizing. It’s a constant 90 degrees every day in an all Muslim country. While I love the job and the country, those 3 months have felt like years and I was more than giddy when my flight landed back in America. I have been doing everything Christmas imaginable, including baking cookies with the family.

Now this recipe uses a cookie press, which of course our family owns, but if you don’t have one, you can always roll out the dough and make cookie shapes yourself.

Day 11: Classic Spritz Cookies

makes 6-7 dozen

• 1.5 cups (3 sticks) butter, softened
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 egg
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 3.5 cups all purpose flour
• Colored sugar or sprinkles (optional)

Preheat oven to 375 degrees

Using a mixer, beat the butter on medium speed until creamy. Add sugar, egg and vanilla, beat well. Add flour, one cup at a time, mix well. Dough will be soft. Do not refrigerate.

Before making the cookies, there is of course, the most important step. Find a taste tester to approve the batter.

Caution: This does contain raw eggs, so if you are one of those party pooper parents who don’t let your kids eat the batter (Mom), just trust me on this.

Fill cookie press, fitted with the disk of your choice, with dough. Press dough onto flat cookie sheet, 1 inch apart.

Decorate cookies with colored sugar or sprinkles, if desired.

Bake 10-12 minutes or until firm, but not brown. Cool 2 minutes on the cookie sheet and then move to cooling racks.

Now these might not be the fanciest, most difficult cookies to bake, but when you’re baking with a 9 year old boy with the attention span of a goldfish, this is a pretty good recipe. Plus, how can you go wrong with 3 sticks of butter and a cup of sugar? Needless to say, I wasn’t hungry for dinner that night.

I’m not sure why.