Spritz Cookies

This is a buttery cookie dough, made to use with a cookie press.  I have one from Pampered Chef, but they can be purchased from lots of places.  I like to make these when I am short on time, but want something yummy and festive.  They don't take frosting, only cook for 8 minutes and you can color the dough or select shapes for any holiday.  You can sprinkle them with colored sugar or not.

Spritz Cookies
1 1/2 c. (3 sticks) butter or margarine
1 c. sugar
1 egg
1 tsp. vanilla
1/2 tsp. almond extract
4 c. flour
1 tsp. baking powder

Cream butter and sugar.  Add egg and extracts.  Add flour in two batches, mixing after each addition, adding baking powder with flour.  Mix until the dough is uniform in color.  Mix in drops of food coloring if desired.  Fill cookie press with dough.  On an ungreased cookie sheet, hold press firmly and squeeze each cookie.  The cookies don't spread much, so you can fit a lot on each cookie sheet. Sprinkle with colored sugar if desired. Bake at 400 degrees for 8 min.  Makes about 5 dozen cookies (depends on the size of your cookie press).

Notes:  I bake two sheets of cookies at a time with this tip.  My kids love to help with these. They like to use the cookie "gun" and squeeze the trigger.  Also, after making these today, I am pretty sure the brown sugar cookies from the previous post would work in a press (without the chilling step).  I'm going to try it next time I make them.  Let me know how it works if you try them first! Happy Valentine's Day!

Jenny