My mom and I made spritz cookies every year at Christmas, using our electric cookie press. Every year the first batch came flying out of the cookie press like the chocolates in that I L0ve Lucy episode in the chocolate factory. We had to scoop up the dough and start again. I now have a manual cookie press, and this was the first cookie I made with it. If you don't have a cookie press you could also use this dough to make thumbprint cookies filled with raspberry or apricot jam. I used almond extract instead of the orange zest called for. You could play around with the flavors or even add food coloring to make green Christmas trees, etc.
- 2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
- 1 cup butter
- 1 (3 ounce) package cream cheese, softened
- 1 cup white sugar
- 1 egg yolk
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 teaspoon orange zest (or 1 1/2 tsp almond extract)
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Sift together the flour, salt, cinnamon and nutmeg; set aside.
- In a medium bowl, cream together butter and cream cheese. Add sugar and egg yolk; beat until light and fluffy. Stir in the vanilla and orange zest (or almond extract). Gradually blend in the dry ingredients. Fill a cookie press or pastry bag with dough, and form cookies on an ungreased cookie sheet.
- Bake for 12 to 15 minutes in the preheated oven, or until the cookies are golden brown on the peaks and on the bottoms. Remove from cookie sheets at once to cool on wire racks.
