A classic butter cookie made using a cookie press, lightly glazed and decorated with sprinkles, candied cherry halves and nonpareils.

Classic Butter Spritz Cookies

Simple spritz cookies. You gotta love them for the ease and simplicity!

A basic, if not a little extra buttery, sugar cookie dough, that's easy to work with, and that you stuff into a tube and press a button that squirts out a perfect little cookie. In fact, spritz comes from the German word spritzen, meaning to squirt - oh my. I think spritz sounds so much nicer don't you?!

Well, they may not be as fancy looking as cut-out cookies, but it's sure the perfect cookie to get the kids in the kitchen with you, or if you've run short on time, and cookie presses have gotten easier and easier to use over the years. I use a Wilton Cookie Pro Ultra II Cookie Press, pictured above, that I picked up from Amazon, although you can usually find them in your local department and discount stores too.

I also bake my spritz cookies on an ungreased, Wilton air bake cookie sheet. The cookies always turn out so nice on these sheets. Like the anise cookies, the dough is not overly sweet but just the right amount of sweet to me. You'll also notice there's no leavening in these cookies, and that is intentional. You actually want a spread on these cookies, but not much of a rise, and the texture is just right without baking powder, so it's really an unnecessary ingredient. Oh and please, these are Christmas cookies - use a good extract and not imitation flavoring.

Depending on the size of your press and the designs you use, you should get somewhere between 4 and 5 dozen cookies from this recipe.

Spritz Cookies pictured here with Italian Anise Cookies.

I like to put some quartered candied cherries and the teeny, tiniest dab of different jams in the middle of some of the flowers before cooking, but for most of them, I just drizzle with a little bit of a powdered sugar butter glaze after they've cooked and cooled, and then get creative with the sprinkles. I just love these cookies and wasn't able to stay out of them, so it's a good thing I froze some.

Hope y'all enjoy them as much as I do - here's how to make them.

For more of my favorite Christmas candies and other goodies, visit my page on Pinterest y'all!



If you make this or any of my recipes, I'd love to see your results! Just snap a photo and hashtag it #DeepSouthDish on social media or tag me @deepsouthdish on Instagram!

Yum

Recipe: Classic Butter Spritz Cookies

©From the Kitchen of Deep South Dish

Prep time: 15 min |Cook time: 5-7 min |

Yield: About 5 dozen

Ingredients

• 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened at room temperature
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 large egg
• 1 teaspoon pure almond or vanilla extract
• 2-1/4 cups all-purpose flour

For the Icing (optional):

• 1 cup powdered sugar
• 1 tablespoon unsalted butter, softened at room temperature
• 2 teaspoons lemon juice
• 3 to 4 teaspoons whole milk, or as needed
• Decorations (sprinkles, nonpareils, colored sugars, quartered candied or maraschino cherries, very small dabs or pepper jelly or jams, etc.)

Instructions

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Cream together butter and sugar. Add salt, egg and the extract and blend. Add flour, about 1/2 cup at a time, blending in until incorporated. Spoon about 1/4 of the dough into a cookie press. Cover and set aside remaining dough; do not refrigerate. Press onto an ungreased baking sheet and bake 5 to 7 minutes until set and only lightly browned. Transfer to a rack to cool completely. Drizzle or dab icing on cooled cookies, if desired, and decorate.

Cook's Notes: For tinted dough, after dividing into quarters, add drops of food coloring to each section, to the color desired. Two ounces of unsweetened, melted chocolate that has been cooled, may also be added to the dough for chocolate spritz cookies. To correct dough that is too stiff, add an extra egg; to moist, add a little extra flour, 1/2 tablespoon at a time.

Source: http://deepsouthdish.com

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