Spritz Cookies aka Spritzgebäck

A few years ago after Christmas, I treated myself to a cookie press. I only make cookies around Christmas, so I finally liberated it from its box to make Spritzgebäck--Spritz cookies--a German cookie so named because you shape them with a cookie press (or some other extruder).

Since I don't have a German mother, I consulted Frau Google for a good recipe. You'd think there wouldn't be that many, but there are and there are ever-so-slight differences that can have a huge effect on the final cookie. I settled on a combination of two recipes (from Betty Crocker and allrecipes.com) and pored over dozens of reviews. I'm happy to report that the cookies are good! Very good! I dare say this is the very best spritz cookie recipe!

A few tips for the first-time spritz-maker, though:
1.  Chill the cookie sheets before spritzing. Either in the refrigerator, freezer or outside (if it's cold and clean). I didn't chill my dough, just the sheet and I had no problems with the dough expanding out of shape or not sticking to the sheet well at all.
2.  Do not overdo it with almond flavor. I used an almond emulsion and it still borders on fakey taste. Almond is a tricky flavoring.
3. Think about lemon instead. I really like the lemon/vanilla ones I made a lot. But I love lemon cookies. LOVE. I also did an orange-cardamom combo that was okay, but not great.
4.  Use good butter. Kerrygold, Cabot, Organic Valley--these are all good butters. A locally-made butter is even better, particularly if it's fresh. Don't use butter that's been sitting around a while. Why? The butter flavor is the most prevalent in this cookie. If you don't use good butter, you'll know it.
5. You can use (less) regular sugar if you'd like, but the powdered sugar really creates a little pillow of a cookie that just melts in your mouth.
6.  Decorate with sprinkles beforehand by smoothing over a tiny bit of water to keep them in place. Or decorate after baking by dabbing the cookies with a little corn syrup first.
7. I actually divided the dough into quarters to experiment with colors and flavors. It was easy to dial back the amount of extract and food color and add in to the small batches. I just pressed the dough out on plastic wrap and dropped on the liquids and rolled it up and turned it until the flavor and color was consistent.

Spritz Cookies aka Spritzgebäck

yields about 6 dozen

1 cup butter, softened (2 sticks)
1 1/4 cups confectioner's sugar
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour, sifted 
1/4 teaspoon salt (more if you use unsalted butter)
1 egg 
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 to 1 teaspoon lemon extract (or almond extract)
food coloring (optional)
sprinkles and colored sugar (optional)

Pre-heat oven to 400ºF. Beat butter and sugar in large bowl until creamy. Mix in the flour, salt, egg, extract and a food color, if desired (start with 2-3 drops and add more as needed).

Roll a portion of the dough into a log and insert into cookie press. Spritz desired shapes on a chilled, ungreased cookie sheet. Decorate with sprinkles and sugar.

Bake 6 to 8 minutes until set, but not brown. Immediately remove to cool on a wire rack.