Traditions: Spritz Cookies (AKA Press Cookies)

So the licorice caramels are very yummy..  especially if you enjoy black licorice.
Lessons I learned:
Use licorice oil or Anise oil.
I used Anise extract.  Not the same thing.
I used the WHOLE BOTTLE to get the right flavor.
Did I mention they are yummy?
We have been doing a lot of baking this last week.
- Cupcakes
- Mints
- Dipped pretzle rods
- Fudge (that didn't turn out..  there is a difference between evaporated milk and sweetened condensed.  I buy more of one, and love it so much, I think it should go in EVERYTHING!!  Not in fudge though..  no, no. no.)
- Caramels
- Licorice caramels
- Sugar cookies
- Spritz

Spritz are my fondest childhood memory..  and that is what we call them, some people call them "press cookies" but I like Spritz..  sounds more festive. ;)
I remember my mom making them, every year.  She stored them in the largest Tupperware bowl known to man and it wasn't the fake Tupperware, it was the real stuff here people..  the kind that had the little circle on the lid with the notch cut out, I think to put it on a beaded chain?
We used the ginormous bowl as a booster seat as well.
She made them in red, yellow, and green, decorated them with red hots, and I thoroughly enjoyed eating the dough.
I still do.
There is something that having your own children does to you, especially around the holidays.  I am usually on a mission to learn how to do something just the way my mom did when I was small.  That is what happened  the year I had Lynn.
That was also the year Merrill got me my cookie press for Christmas.
Love that guy!
I bet I could have gotten another dozen or so cookies if I could just keep my hands out of that bowl!
It is an easy recipe, I use my Wilton cookie press to extrude them in the fun shapes.

Spritz

1 cup softened butter
1/2 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon of Almond extract
2 1/4 cups flour

Cream together the butter and sugar.  Add eggs Almond extract, and the flour, and mix until it forms a dough.  Chill in the fridge until ready to use.  You can either roll in waxed paper, then slice and bake on a cookie sheet, or you can use a cookie press.

Red hots to embellish make them that much cuter and yummy!

Bake at 300 for 6-8 minutes

I love these things..  but I love pretty much anything with Almond extract in it.
My StazOn ink smells like Almond extract..  I get hungry for Spritz while I scrap sometimes for SOME reason. ;)