Holiday Spritz Cookies

Every year, my mom and I bake Christmas treats together. We make them for friends, family, coworkers and even ourselves, so often times we have multiple Christmas baking nights together. Last night we whipped up the first batch of holiday goodies for the season. My mom made her famous chocolate fudge and I made my favorite spritz cookies. Spritz cookies are a Christmas baking staple in our house, so the Girls Team wanted to share the recipe on MIHM :)

First we gathered all of the ingredients together. Here's what you'll need:

1 cup margerine or butter, softened
1/2 cup sugar (we use bakers sugar)
2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon of salt
1 egg
1 teaspoon almond or vanilla extract (MIHM tip: use the almond extract for more flavor!)

Ingredients for spritz cookies and fudge.

Start by preheating the oven to 400 degrees. Mix the butter and sugar together. Once combined, add the rest of the ingredients. Mix until all of the ingredients are combined into a dough.

Dough.

 

After the dough is ready, place it in a cookie press. We have a few shape templates for our cookie press. I chose the star and Christmas tree ones. 

 

Cookie press.

 

The cookie press will compact the dough as you place the cookies on an ungreased baking sheet. Once you do the first 2 or 3 cookies, you'll find a rhythm for how many seconds you should let the dough come out of the cookie press. I usually go about five long seconds before lifting the cookie press off the baking sheet. The cookie press is LOUD, but the high pitched whizzing sound reminds me of Christmas so I love this part of the baking process :)

Spritzing time!

 

Once all of your cookies are on the baking sheet, add sprinkles for color. Then bake at 400 degrees for 6-9 minutes. I think 7 minutes is the magic number. The amount of dough in the recipe will make about 2 and a half sheets of cookies, or about 50 cookies. 

 

Ready to bake.

 

As soon as the cookies are done in the oven, take them out and remove them from the hot tray to cool. Now, it's time to eat! I always try my first cookie while it is still warm because they have a light, fluffy quality to them that is delicious :)

Christmas trees and stars, ready to eat.

 

While I was making the cookies, my mom was making chocolate fudge. I have never made fudge on my own, and have helped in the past, but there is nothing like my mom's fudge! This should be ready to eat tonight after spending some time in the fridge. YUM :)

 

Homemade fudge ready for the fridge.