Seven Way Spritz

Christmas is almost here!  Such a wonderful time of year!  It's good to remember why we celebrate this special day which commemorates the birth our our Savior, but it's also great to participate in the fun and whimsical aspect of the season as well.  Part of celebrating whimsy is playing along with the tradition of Santa Claus.  

Every year on Christmas Eve, my children and I place the traditional plate of cookies and milk for Santa.  My favorite to bake each year is Spritz.

Spritz are wonderful, light butter cookies that you make by using a cookie press.  The word Spritz is actually derived from the German word spritzen, meaning to squirt or spray.  This recipe from the Pillsbury Company is the one I have used for years and years, and it is so easy, it's almost fail-proof.  :0)

Ingredient List:

1 cup powdered sugar
1 cup real butter, softened
1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 egg
2 1/3 cups all purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon salt

In addition to the ingredients, to make these yummy cookies, you will need:
A cookie press
An ungreased cookie sheet
Cake or Cookie decorating bag and accoutrement

Assorted sprinkles

Frosting

Sugar wash

Preheat oven to 400.  In a large bowl, beat powdered sugar, butter, vanilla, and egg until light and fluffy.  Stir in flour and salt; blend well.  I must say that when my hubby surprised me with my Kitchen Aid mixer, it took some getting used to.  I even still prefer sometimes to use an old-fashioned bowl and hand mixer.  However, with cookies, this mixer SHINES!  I love using the mixer to make cookies, there is such an ease of removal of the dough, it rarely sticks to either the beater or bowl, and works wonderfully.

Fill your cookie press with dough and fit with your desired cookie plate.  Press the dough onto the ungreased cookie sheet.

Bake at 400 for 5 to 7 minutes or until lightly browned on the edges.  Immediately remove from cookie sheets, and cool completely on a cookie cooling rack.

You may serve these cookies plain, and they are lovely.  For my Spritz this year, I thought dressing them up would be fun.  Here are seven different ways (other than plain) to dress up your Spritz.

 

You could spray the cookies with food color spray,

shown here.

Sprinkle the cookies with traditional sugar sprinkles,

Or, make a quick frosting, and use a cake or cookie decorating kit to bead frosting onto the cookies.
My frosting recipe is really simple.  To make bright white frosting, combine approximately 1/4 cup of powdered sugar with 2 tablespoons shortening, and mix well until it is the desired consistency.  Think Oreo cookie cream consistency.

 

Spoon the frosting into the decorating bag,

and carefully bead onto the cookies.

You can even add fun Sprinkles after you've beaded the frosting, such as these cute red and green mini Christmas trees,

or these pretty blue sprinkles with tiny snowflakes.

Or spray with color, then frost.

Here, I sprayed with color, frosted, then also added mini candy canes to each cookie.

Lastly, you can brush the cookies with a sugar wash (powdered sugar and water), then sprinkle.

  This also keeps the sprinkles in place.

 

The sprinkles I used came in a multipack of six.  Supercute!!  Gotta love HomeGoods!

To see these cookies featured in my setting for Spritz With Saint Nick, you may visit the post on my blog Parsimonious Décor Darling by clicking here. 

  

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