Butter Cookies

Every family has holiday traditions. Maybe you’ve been the creator of them, maybe they were passed down from earlier generations. All my family holiday traditions are probably food-based now that I think about it, and I ain’t mad about it.

It wouldn’t be the holiday season without walnut snowball cookies, zeppoles, and BUTTER COOKIES aka spritz cookies.

Every Christmas Eve when we got to my Grandparent’s house my Aunt Linda would show up with huge metal tubs (the huge ones that butter danish cookies used to come in) of walnut snowball cookies and butter cookies that were dyed red and green. Christmas tree or wreath shape cookies only IYKYK.

Through many trials and tribulations with multiple cookie presses, I now crank these suckers out with Chris on the late-night every year the week of Christmas. We made them a little early this year for you guys =)

Enjoy and I hope you are better at using the cookie press than I am ( that part is chris’s job-I make the dough and man the oven )

DO NOT BUY AN ELECTRIC ONE- I repeat DO NOT buy an electric press. We work out, get the manual one. The electric one made me want to bash my face on the counter. You will thank me later.

Here is the one I own: cookie press

Prep time: 10 mins

Makes: a lot of little cookies 80 ish cookies

Ingredients

• 1 cup (2 sticks; 230g) unsalted butter, softened to room temperature

• 3/4 cup (150g) granulated sugar

• 1 large egg, at room temperature

• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

• 1 teaspoon almond extract

• 2 and 1/4 cups (281g) all-purpose flour

• 1/2 teaspoon salt

• Powdered Sugar

Instructions:

• Preheat oven to 350°F. Line 2-3 large baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone baking mats.

• In a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, beat the butter and granulated sugar together on medium-high speed until smooth, about 2 minutes. Add the egg, vanilla extract, and almond extract, and beat on high speed until combined, about 1 minute. Scrape down the sides and up the bottom of the bowl and beat again as needed to combine.

• At low speed, beat in the flour and salt. Turn up to high speed and beat until completely combined.

• Press the dough– follow the manufacturer’s directions to fit your cookie press with a decorative plate. Scrape some of the dough into your cookie press. Hold the cookie press perpendicular to the lined baking sheet and press out the cookies 2 inches apart.

• If the cookie dough becomes too soft as you work, chill the shaped cookie dough in the refrigerator for 10 minutes before baking.

• Bake until very lightly browned on the edges, 7 to 9 minutes.

• Remove from the oven place on a wire rack and dust with powdered sugar. (Pro Tip: put paper towels or another pan under the wire rack so sugar doesn’t go everywhere)

• Cookies stay fresh in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 1 week.

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