Cookery
"Mark's Christmas Spritz Cookies"
The cookie that says, "Christmas!"
The cookie that says, "Christmas!"
Ingredients:
1 cup Crisco shortening
3/4 cup sugar
1 egg
2 1/4 cups sifted, all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
Dash of salt
1 teaspoon of almond extract
Food coloring (optional)
Colored sugar (optional)
Tools:
electric stand mixer and large mixing bowl
an Official Trigger-Quick Wear-Ever Cookie Gun
& Pastry Decorator (or a cookie press)
cookie sheets
aluminum foil
spatula (to remove cookies)
wire cooling racks
cookie tins/containers
bowl for dry ingredients
What to do:
Begin by sifting all of the dry ingredients together into a bowl except the colored sugar (that goes on top of the cookies later). Set that aside, and start creaming the Crisco in your electric stand mixer. Then start adding the sugar gradually until it's all in. When the sugar's in, add the egg to the mixture and beat well. Once the egg has been mixed in real good throughout, start adding the sifted, dry ingredients. Do this slowly! Otherwise, you'll make a mess! Then, in goes the almond extract. When everything's mixed together, you're ready to begin making cookies.
If you want to color your cookies, now's the time to add the food coloring. Red and green food coloring works best, blue is fair, and yellow doesn't work that well in these cookies. You don't need more than a few drops of the stuff, either. The idea is to tint the cookies, not taint them. If you want to have more than one color per batch, separate the dough into two or three parts, and color each individually with the mixer.
Fill your cookie gun or cookie press, make cookies on the cookie sheets, and bake in a pre-heated 400 degree oven for 10-12 minutes.
Remove from oven when edges brown slightly.
Yield: about 5 dozen cookies
Recommended Sides:
Milk
Cookie Guns and How to Use Them
Now comes the joy of the cookie gun. There are all kinds of these. Some are cookie guns (which resemble grease guns or caulking guns), and some are cookie presses. Both should work okay, but I prefer the cookie gun. Some are even battery powered, but I've never had any luck with those. You can pick up inexpensive versions of either in kitchen stores, but my advice is to hit eBay. Why? Because you will invariably find nice copies for sale because no one uses them much anymore. The people who sell them may not even know what they are, other than it was some "kitchen gadget" grandma left them. To them, it's just so much old junk cluttering up the house, and something to either list on eBay or wait until they have a yard sale so they can get rid of it. Silly people!
In fact, I snagged an exact copy of my Mom's cookie gun, box and all, on eBay. Even better, so far as I could tell, the cookie gun was completely unused!
1 cup Crisco shortening
3/4 cup sugar
1 egg
2 1/4 cups sifted, all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
Dash of salt
1 teaspoon of almond extract
Food coloring (optional)
Colored sugar (optional)
Tools:
electric stand mixer and large mixing bowl
an Official Trigger-Quick Wear-Ever Cookie Gun
& Pastry Decorator (or a cookie press)
cookie sheets
aluminum foil
spatula (to remove cookies)
wire cooling racks
cookie tins/containers
bowl for dry ingredients
What to do:
Begin by sifting all of the dry ingredients together into a bowl except the colored sugar (that goes on top of the cookies later). Set that aside, and start creaming the Crisco in your electric stand mixer. Then start adding the sugar gradually until it's all in. When the sugar's in, add the egg to the mixture and beat well. Once the egg has been mixed in real good throughout, start adding the sifted, dry ingredients. Do this slowly! Otherwise, you'll make a mess! Then, in goes the almond extract. When everything's mixed together, you're ready to begin making cookies.
If you want to color your cookies, now's the time to add the food coloring. Red and green food coloring works best, blue is fair, and yellow doesn't work that well in these cookies. You don't need more than a few drops of the stuff, either. The idea is to tint the cookies, not taint them. If you want to have more than one color per batch, separate the dough into two or three parts, and color each individually with the mixer.
Fill your cookie gun or cookie press, make cookies on the cookie sheets, and bake in a pre-heated 400 degree oven for 10-12 minutes.
Remove from oven when edges brown slightly.
Yield: about 5 dozen cookies
Recommended Sides:
Milk
Cookie Guns and How to Use Them
Now comes the joy of the cookie gun. There are all kinds of these. Some are cookie guns (which resemble grease guns or caulking guns), and some are cookie presses. Both should work okay, but I prefer the cookie gun. Some are even battery powered, but I've never had any luck with those. You can pick up inexpensive versions of either in kitchen stores, but my advice is to hit eBay. Why? Because you will invariably find nice copies for sale because no one uses them much anymore. The people who sell them may not even know what they are, other than it was some "kitchen gadget" grandma left them. To them, it's just so much old junk cluttering up the house, and something to either list on eBay or wait until they have a yard sale so they can get rid of it. Silly people!
In fact, I snagged an exact copy of my Mom's cookie gun, box and all, on eBay. Even better, so far as I could tell, the cookie gun was completely unused!
Mark's favorite Christmas cookie is of the spritz variety. But unlike any crappy spritz cookie you'd get at the supermarket, these old fashioned spritz cookies are both awesome and Christmasy! To make Mark's Christmas Spritz Cookies you'll need an Official Trigger-Quick Wear-Ever Cookie Gun & Pastry Decorator (or a cookie press), and a dash of the Christmas spirit!
In our house we had the one, the only, the REAL cookie gun. It was the Official Trigger-Quick! Wear-Ever Cookie Gun & Pastry Decorator, that came in the pink box!
As you can see, it comes with everything you need except cookie dough! The ends of the barrel unscrew, and those little metal "panels" are the patterns you put in the end cap. When the dough is pressed through, it forms into a wreath, or a christmas tree, or a camel, or whatever (you can see drawings of them on the box). The "cone" part and the little metal button-looking parts you use for
cake decorating.
As you can see, it comes with everything you need except cookie dough! The ends of the barrel unscrew, and those little metal "panels" are the patterns you put in the end cap. When the dough is pressed through, it forms into a wreath, or a christmas tree, or a camel, or whatever (you can see drawings of them on the box). The "cone" part and the little metal button-looking parts you use for
cake decorating.
After much pain, trial, error (and eating the "mistakes"), I'm going to share with you the secret of using a cookie gun successfully. Namely, it helps to have your cookie sheets chilled in the 'fridge before you start. Why? Because the shortening in the dough will stick to a cold surface, but a warm surface will melt the fats. And if the fats melt, you can't get a nice cookie to form on the cookie sheet no matter how hard you try. It's also important that the cookie sheets are ungreased and unfloured, for the same reason. We want the dough to stick, and if it won't you'll be frustrated no end. Nonstick surfaces may also pose a problem, but you can rectify that with aluminum foil (plus, clean-up is easier).
Place the end of the dough-filled cookie gun (or press) on the surface of the chilled cookie sheet, squeeze out some dough, and lift upwards and a bit off to the side. My Official Trigger-Quick! Wear-Ever Cookie Gun & Pastry Decorator has a knob with which you can choose the desired thickness of the cookie, which is another reason why I like it (the medium setting works best).
Every batch I've ever made is a bit troublesome to start with, but after a little practice, you'll be right on the cookie-making beam!
"...cookie-makin' rhythm, ya' got me on the go! Cookie-makin' rhythm...!"
Decorate with colored sugar, bake at 400 degrees for 10-12 minutes. It's very important to watch the cookies to make sure they don't burn. That can happen pretty quickly, so be mindful to remove the cookies when they brown slightly on the edges. Remove them carefully from the cookie sheet, and let the cookies cool on the rack before devouring them... if you can wait!
You can put the cookies in cookie tins and use for gift-giving. Place the cookies in layers between pieces of wax paper, just for that old-timey feel.
Merry Christmas!
Place the end of the dough-filled cookie gun (or press) on the surface of the chilled cookie sheet, squeeze out some dough, and lift upwards and a bit off to the side. My Official Trigger-Quick! Wear-Ever Cookie Gun & Pastry Decorator has a knob with which you can choose the desired thickness of the cookie, which is another reason why I like it (the medium setting works best).
Every batch I've ever made is a bit troublesome to start with, but after a little practice, you'll be right on the cookie-making beam!
"...cookie-makin' rhythm, ya' got me on the go! Cookie-makin' rhythm...!"
Decorate with colored sugar, bake at 400 degrees for 10-12 minutes. It's very important to watch the cookies to make sure they don't burn. That can happen pretty quickly, so be mindful to remove the cookies when they brown slightly on the edges. Remove them carefully from the cookie sheet, and let the cookies cool on the rack before devouring them... if you can wait!
You can put the cookies in cookie tins and use for gift-giving. Place the cookies in layers between pieces of wax paper, just for that old-timey feel.
Merry Christmas!
