Spritz Cookies / Swedish Butter Cookies / Pressed Butter Cookies

Valentines day is almost there – Wish you all a very lovely and romantic day with the people you love!

Did You Know - Approximately 150 million Valentine's Day cards are exchanged annually, making Valentine's Day the second most popular card-sending holiday after Christmas. 

  

This year, I am excited for one more reason to enjoy this day - My little munchkin is going to have her first Valentine’s day party at school. The other day, we both went shopping to buy gifts for her friends and teachers and so now she is really hyped up about the event. I really hope she has a fun and special day at school with her friends. 

Mia packing gifts for her friends and teachers 

  
For her party, I signed up to bring cookies as I could picture the both of us having some fun and quality time baking cookies together.  We jointly finalized on Spritz cookies as the item of choice and as the weekend rolled along, both mom and daughter got ready in their aprons singing our favorite cookie song. It was totally fun making these with her and the best part was decorating them. We decked these with red, white and pink M&Ms and some red sprinkles.  

Now what starts with the letter "C"? 

"Cookie" starts with "C"! 

Let's think of other things that starts with "C"! 

Uh. . .Uh. . . Who cares about da other things?! 

"C" is for cookie that's good enough for me, 

Oh! cookie, cookie, cookie starts with "C"!

The name spritz comes from the German word spritzen, meaning "to squirt" because the soft dough is squirted or pushed through a cookie press to make fancy designs. I used Wilton’s cookie press and I highly recommend it as its really easy to use and in one shot I was able to make almost 75 cookies. The ways to decorate these cookies are endless – you can color them or add M&Ms, Sprinkles, Currants, raisins, candies, colored sugar, finely chopped nuts, candied fruit or fruit peel   

Recipe from here

Yields - 75 cookie 

Ingredients 

1 cup - Butter, softened 

1/2 cup - Sugar 

2 ¼ cups - All-purpose flour 

1/4 Tsp - salt 

1 - Egg 

1  ½ Tsp - vanilla essence 

Food color (optional) 

Decorate with M&Ms, Sprinkles, Currants, raisins, candies, colored sugar, finely chopped nuts, candied fruit or fruit peel (optional) 

Directions 

• Preheat the oven to 400 F. 
• Beat butter and sugar in large bowl with electric mixer on medium speed, or mix with spoon. 
• Stir in flour, salt, egg, and vanilla extract. 
• Place dough in cookie press. Form desired shapes on ungreased cookie sheet. Decorate as desired (We used M&M's and sprinkles). 
• Bake 5 to 8 minutes or until set but not brown. Immediately remove from cookie sheet to wire rack.

Variations

• Holiday Spritz: Substitute rum extract for the almond extract or vanilla; tint dough with appropriate food colors. After baking, glaze cooled cookies with 
• Butter-Rum Glaze: Melt 1/4 cup butter or margaine over low heat; remove from heat. Stir in 1 cup powdered sugar and 1 teaspoon rum extract. Stir in 1 to 2 tablespoons hot water until glaze is spreadable. Tint glaze with food color to match cookies if desired. 
• Spice Spritz: Stir in 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon, 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg and 1/4 teaspoon ground allspice with the flour. 
• Chocolate Spritz: Stir 2 ounces unsweetened baking chocolate, melted and cooled, into the butter-sugar mixture. 

Notes and Tips 

• Butter is responsible for the tender, rich texture and flavor of these incredible cookies. Margarine would not work nearly as well. 
• These cookies can be stored about a week at room temperature 
• I used Wilton's cookie press to make these. However, if you do not own a cookie press, you can make these cookies using a pastry bag fitted with an open star tip
• To decorate cookies after baking, use a drop of corn syrup to attach decorations to cookies.