Spritz Cookies

My mother made Spritz cookies every year for Christmas.
This year, I thought I would continue that tradition. I have had the press for years but have never actually DONE it.

I have a new respect for my Mom, and the tradition. These are fiddly little cookies!

First you make the dough. Then divide it up, and add the food coloring for the different shapes. Then refrigerate it.
Later, you come back, preheat the oven, and begin pressing out the cookies. If the dough is too cold, it does not come out of the metal tube. If it is too warm, it comes out fast, and kind of ‘breaks’ the shape that you want.
Then, once you have coaxed the dough down onto the sheet, and begged it to stay there, then you can decorate. ! Little sprinkles running everywhere, onto the cookies, off the cookies, down the sheet, onto the floor. It wouldn’t really be Christmas without colored sugar crackling underfoot, would it?

In the end, I learned how. And the results are oh, so tasty! I think I’ll do it again next year. And Amelia will be old enough to help shake sugar onto the floor. (oh, she was probably old enough to do that this year. )