Spritz, Spritz Cookies

I am such a follower. But you know what? I'm OK with that if it leads me to new and better things. Better always for someone else to taste-test the goods before I drop dead eating them, right? Right. Not that I'm wishing any harm on you, Lisa.

This uber domestic diva has lead me to some pretty wacky things, which I've always embraced whole-heartedly: hot yoga, knitting, and now...cookie guns. Luckily, I'm a lover, not a fighter. The only things popping out of the barrels of this gun are flowers -- tiny, delicate, blue-dotted flowers no bigger than 1 1/2 inches in diameter. I tried the scary contraption out just 24 hours after my friend gifted me it for Christmas. Yay, experiments!

Cookie guns -- or cookie presses, as the rest of the world likes to call them -- make what are known as spritz cookies by pushing a soft sugar-cookie dough out of a choice of variously shaped disks to form cute, professional-looking cookie shapes. For this batch, I used Wilton's recipe for spritz cookies, as I've recently had great results with the company's roll-out sugar cookie recipe (but that's a post for another day).

Spritz, Spritz Cookies
(from Wilton Classic Spritz Cookies)

1 1/2 cups butter, softened
1 cup granulated sugar
1 egg
2 tbsp milk
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 tsp almond extract
3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder

In a large bowl, cream butter and sugar. Add egg, milk, vanilla and almond extracts and blend.

In a small bowl, mix flour and baking powder well. Add in small doses to creamed mixture, until wet and dry ingredients come together into a soft dough.

Working with dough at room temperature, form roughly into a log and cram/push into cookie press until full. This dough will result in about five refills of the cookie press.

Press (shoot) cookies onto ungreased, room-temperature baking sheet.

Bake at 375 degrees for 9 to 11 minutes until edges of some cookies are just beginning to brown.

Cool. Frost with basic icing or dip in chocolate or icing, if desired.