Diving Headlong Into the Holidays - Spritz Cookies

As we plunge into the holiday season, there are a number of things that I expect to have to eat (or drink): candy canes, red-and-green everything, egg nog, and a whole bunch of cookies.

My time in the kitchen this time of year (as you might have already guessed) tends to be focused on baking a few dozen of those cookies. (Well... maybe a few dozen dozen would be more correct.) And I have a pretty set routine for which ones I make first and on down the list.

In case you're wondering, I start with the ones that don't mind getting a little dry over time. Not that you want them to get dried out, but just that they don't have to be chewy for them to be good. Where does that mean we start? Let me explain:

Now, first, here's the recipe:

The recipe actually came with my cookie press. It's the best recipe for these I've ever found, so I figure why mess with it?

I have a note on this that says "Will make 5 dozen wreaths or about 3 1/2 dozen trees."

The part of this recipe where we put the ingredients together is pretty easy, so we'll go through that quickly.

A quick note about the Gluten-free version of these (or any baked good, really): If you're baking for someone who is allergic to gluten (and doesn't simply prefer to avoid it), you'll want to check all of your ingredients - including the vanilla and food coloring - to make sure there's no gluten in them. It shows up in some really odd places. 

We have the ingredients:

You might notice that there are two eggs in the picture. Yep. I doubled the recipe.

We cream the shortening (margarine for this round) and the sugar:

We add in the eggs and vanilla - and the first round of food coloring:

Sorry. I realize that the green food coloring looks a bit odd in this picture. 

Then come the dry ingredients (and the realization that we need some more food coloring): 

The last of the flour goes in at about the same time that I decided the color was where I wanted it to be.

I started to make these in my mixer, but these are so easy to do by hand!

And voilà - cookie dough!

So now we get to the fun part - working with the cookie press.

Before you load in the cookie dough, you want to choose - and place - your cookie-forming plate. (In case you're wondering, it gets held in place by some metal "bumps" on the inside of the copper ring.)

Next, the dough goes in through the other end.

You can put in a whole lot of dough - and you want it to be fairly packed in. Air bubbles can cause weird issues when they come out through the plate.

Once the press is filled, you line up the "lid" and screw it on so that the plunger comes up against the dough.

I probably should have mentioned that you want the plunger all the way up into the lid at first, so that you can turn it and push the dough out through the other end. (Am I over-explaining this? I feel like I'm over-explaining.)

I love how retro this contraption looks (and is). I bought this one probably 25 years ago - but it's exactly like the one my mom has that I used when I was growing up!

When you turn the plunger, it will start to push the dough out through the plate.

(It's the same process as making extruded pasta, really - or extruded metalwork, for that matter.) 

Okay. Here's where the issues can come in with not enough or two much dough coming out. In this case, I didn't get enough dough out before I lifted the press. So parts of the wreath stuck to the press, instead of to the pan.

It's almost an action shot!

If it had been really bad (like more than half of the wreath not working), I'd have tossed the dough back into the bowl and used it in the next round. As it was, though, I just kind of mashed it back together.

The wreath in question is the right-hand one in the bottom row.

I can easily get 5 rows of 7 on my cookie sheet. They do spread a little, but not too much.

Do you see in the photo that no dough is coming out through the plate? To stop it, you just have to twist the handle about a half-turn "backward" and then you're good to (not) go.

 A sprinkling of sugar, and the first pan was off to the oven.

Second pan - I seem to have gotten a bit heavy-handed with the press, but I have a solution for that...

Cherries!

I feel like I have to say that you want to use a cutting board for these. You definitely don't want to use your thumb as a backstop for pushing them across the knife. That would be very very bad. Don't do that.

If you're being really festive, you can mix and match the colors of the cherries and the sugars.

When they come out of the oven, the bottom edges should be just barely turning brown. 

Remember: we put the red-sugared ones in before we worked on the green-sugared ones. They didn't change color in the oven.

And then, for variety, you can switch to another plate (the set has close to a dozen in it - including all four playing card suits, a butterfly, and something that looks like either a dog or a camel).

Remember how I mentioned that there are bumps in the metal that hold these in place? There are also three "feet" that keep you a consistent distance off the pan. Try to keep your plate situated so that those don'e interfere with the design.

Of course, you can mix your sugar colors, too, for some variety on the cookies.

I love how these all look pretty, even though they're all slightly different.

I feel I should admit that I may, once, have had a friend over to help make these and... well... I may have gotten very particular about the sugaring of the cookies. That was a number of years ago, though. And I'm much less strict about it now. Life - and the holiday season - are way too short to worry about perfect sugar on a cookie.

And there we go! All set for Santa - or whoever else may show up at your chimney (or your door).

So, how did I do?

Oh. Before I go, there's one quick thing about clean-up that I feel I should mention. The sugar tends to get everywhere. If you've got a porous countertop - or if you're just really picky about how things clean up - you may want to put down some paper on the counter before you begin. Among other things, when the sugar gets wet it melts - which can stain.  So be careful with this.

And, of course: Enjoy!

(You know what else you might enjoy as we head into the holidays with family? A blog post about writing memoirs! If nothing else, maybe the idea of writing about your relatives will make getting through the tense moments a little easier. And I just happen to have posted something about that topic last weekend, here.)

-----
What gets you into the holiday spirit? Is it a cookie? A spice? A change in the weather? Let me know what helps you find your holiday happy and I'll see if I can work it into a future post!