Classic Spritz Cookies

I'm a very simple person, with simple taste, that's probably while I absolutely love this recipe while others enjoy it.  This cookie is a plainer one, but I love it all the same.  It's a butter cookie (it has 3 sticks of butter!) and the other ingredients are relatively basic.  My mom ordered the Pampered Chef Cookie Press and multiple recipe variations for Spritz Cookies came with it.  I'm just going to share the classic recipe as that's the one the others derive from, and it's the easiest to change to your tastes.  It is very important to have the cookie press for this recipe, it's kind of the key to it all.

Ingredients

1 1/2 cups butter (3 sticks)

1 cup sugar

1 egg

1 tsp vanilla extract

3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

Colored sugar or sprinkles are optional (I used them)

Instructions

1. Preheat 375 degrees Fahrenheit.

2. Beat butter and sugar on medium speed in a large bowl until creamy, or about three minutes.  Don't forget to scrape the sides of the bowl to ensure even mixing.

3. Add egg and vanilla, beat well.

4. Add flour in increments.  Blend on low speed until fully mixed.  Again, do not forget to scrape down the sides of the bowl.  Do not refrigerate the dough, even though the dough is very soft.

5. Put your first disc into the Cookie Press. I used the snowflake, Christmas tree, and pinwheel discs.  Fill the press with dough.

Snowflake Disc

An 'ugly' pinwheel cookie

6. Press the dough onto the cookie sheet (ungreased) by turning the handle of the cookie press.  The first couple of cookies will be, for lack of a better word, ugly, but that's because of the initial pressure in the press.  After the first few they should turn out fine.  Space the cookies one inch apart, they don't expand while cooking but they should still be spaced.  If you choose to do so, now is the time to add sprinkle to the cookies.  For the pinwheels I used red sprinkles, green sprinkles for the Christmas trees, and white or clear sprinkles for the snowflakes.

A 'pretty' pinwheel cookie

7. Bake the cookies for 10 to 12 minutes.  Watch the first batch carefully to make any adjustments to the temperature of the oven or the time the cookies are in the oven.  I had to take the cookies out early to prevent burning with my oven.  The bottoms of the cookies will be slightly golden, but they shouldn't be too dark.  The top of the cookies won't change much in color, so what you see when you put them in is essentially what you see when you take them out.

8.  Let the cookies cool for two minutes on the cookie sheet, then transfer them to a cooling rack.

Enjoy!