Holiday Spritz Cookies

My mother made Spritz cookies for as long as I can remember.  She and her girlfriends would exchange cookie recipes and this one is tradition.  It has been used in my family every Christmas for at least thirty years.  When I was a little girl, I remember her talking about this recipe and telling me with a bit of shock in her voice that there is "Five cups of flour in it!"  I think I was seven or eight and I wasn't sure if five cups of flour in a cookie recipe was good or bad, but soon after this recipe emerged from the friendship circle's recipe card catalog and was introduced to my father, she suddenly had in her possession a brand new Kitchen Aid Mixer because the motor was supposed to be able to handle all the flour in this recipe.  Looking back on it now, it all makes sense.  My mother is no longer with us, but I suppose you can say that indirectly she taught me that the way to a man's heart is through his stomach or that the way to get a Kitchen Aid Mixer was to bribe him with something he couldn't imagine living without!

My mother never colored her spritz cookies and the thought hadn't occurred to me until this year.  My daughter's favorite color is orange and she relentlessly begged me to make orange spritz cookie Christmas trees.  Orange cookies at the holidays for me was simply going against everything "Christmas".  After much discussion, we agreed on green.  You can make spritz cookies any time of the year and make them any color you can conjure up, in any shape that suits you.

If this recipe has been in business for over thirty years, it has to be a keeper and I know that if I miss making pink or red spritz cookies for Valentine's Day, there are sure to be orange spritz cookies in my future sometime next fall.

Spritz Cookies 

by Carole Turner

1 lb Butter

1 1/2 C. Sugar
1 t. Vanilla or Almond extract

2 Egg yolks and one egg white

5 C. Flour!
1 t. Salt

Cream butter and sugar together.  Add egg yolks and white, mixing well.  Add extract.  While mixer is on low, gradually add flour and salt until incorporated.  Load your cookie press with dough.  Press out cookie shapes onto jelly roll baking sheet.  Cook at 350 degrees for 8 to 10 minutes.

Tips:  I use a little cinnamon (aka red hot) to top each Christmas tree cookie.  Use fun seasonal sprinkles and get the kids involved.

Merry Christmas.