February 11, 2013

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. 

16 comments :

  1. Lovely cookies.....C is for cookies and that's good enough fr me too ;-)

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  2. Cookies are cute cute.. and Mia is adorable. Absolutely Love it !!! Hope mom and daughter had lovely time in making and packing !!! Nothing is compared to this :)

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  3. They look cute. Cookie press is really handy when you have to make lots of cookies for a party...its time to get one I guess :)

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  4. Nice colors! more than cookies,the pictures are what I adore here...You are doing a great job in these photos.. Way to go Shema! Keep up the good work and continue to improvise.. Waiting for more of these.

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  5. Very pretty cookies...looks so lovely...

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  6. such pretty cookies and such pretty clicks. You have made it so perfectly.hope your dear girl had fun with these at school.

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  7. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

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  8. Love the cute shapes of the cookies..Seems like you had a great time making these cookies.. :)

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  9. very beautiful cookies... glad to have found your lovely space, just browsing through some amazing recipes, but you don't seem to have a follower tab... anyway, I have done the email subscription... :)
    http://sweettoothraf.blogspot.com

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  10. Love all of these cookies! Especially the Swedish Butter Cookies! Great pictures! Can't wait to try this!

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  11. Wow these are so beautiful :) and Mia is adorable!

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  12. Cute cookies and Mia...Loved the shapes and clicks.....

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  13. These cookies are such a treat to the eyes. Looks beautiful. Thanks so much for visiting my blog:)

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First of all thanks a lot for stopping by my space. I would be very happy to hear from you and would love to see your comments and feedback :)
Thanks a bunch,
Shema

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