Spritz

 

Cookies.  Cookies aren't always just cookies.  Sometimes they are time machines.  These spritz cookies have been a Christmas family tradition ever since I can remember.  They are also one of my favorites.  The first bite of spritz I take every Christmas season takes me back to my childhood; my tiny hand full of Christmas tree cookies, sitting down to watch Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer.  It really does.  Every time.

 

Maybe the nostalgia is why it's one of my favorites, but I don't think so.  These cookies are light, buttery, simply sweet with a hint of almost extract.  Oh, the almond extract!  I love it.  Plus, I get to put sprinkles on them, and who can resist sprinkles?

 

I started making these cookies myself probably when I was about sixteen. Some of my first pictures with Valerie are of us making these cookies.  I used a cookie press with a twist top to extract the cookies. A couple years later I got a cookie press with a trigger mechanism that uniformly extracted the cookies with a single click. My cookie production increased dramatically with that tool in my arsenal. 

 

Over the years, we have branched out and started making spritz cookies for other seasons and holidays.  This year, we made them for Easter, and the results were very pretty.

 

 

It's nice because a single batch makes so many cookies.  What I have started to do is make a batch of dough and then split it up between the kids to let them pick which color to make them and which shape of the cookie press to use for their cookies.  Ahh, even more memories made with spritz.  More destinations for our sweet, buttery little time machine.

 

Spritz

Ingredients

1 1/2 cups butter

1 cup sugar

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 egg

3/4 teaspoon almond extract

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

3 1/2 cups all purpose flour

5 or 6 drops of food coloring

 

Directions

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Beat butter and sugar until combined. Add sugar and baking powder. Beat in egg, almond extract, vanilla extract.  Add the flour and food coloring and mix until thoroughly integrated.

Place the dough into a cookie press and extract cookies into an ungreased cookie sheet.

Bake for 8 minutes and cool on a wire rack.

Chocolate Cookies - Yum! Yum! Yum!

I'm pretty set in my ways when it comes to the cookies I bake for the holidays.  For years, our cookie boxes consisted of the chewy, snickerdoodles, and spritz.  Not a big variety, but some of tastiest cookies I make. 

Last year, Valerie found a chocolate cookie recipe that she wanted to try.  She wanted to make them for Christmas, to boot.  Skeptical, I agreed to include them, and we made a batch.  The cookies turned out delicious and they become a welcome addition to our Christmas cookie lineup.

The best way I can describe these cookies are as a chocolate snickerdoodle.  They are moist and chewy on the inside with slightly crispy edges.  We make them the same size as our snickerdoodles and roll them in sugar before baking.  They have a really nice chocolate flavor, too.  Kind of like a brownie cookie.  Yum!

Top Secret Chocolate Cookies

Printable Recipe

Ingredients
2 1/2 sticks unsalted butter
2 cups sugar
2 eggs
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
3/4 cup Dutch process cocoa powder
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
Additional sugar for garnish

Directions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

In a large bowl, add the butter and sugar and cream together with a hand mixer. Add the eggs and vanilla extract to the creamed mixture and mix until combined.

In a medium bowl, mix the cocoa powder, flour, baking soda, and salt. Slowly add the dry ingredients and continue mixing until incorporated. Roll the dough into walnut size balls, roll in sugar and place on wax paper lined baking sheet.  Rrefrigerate for 2 hours.

Once thoroughly chilled, place on a parchment paper lined cookie sheet and bake for 10 minutes. Remove to a wire rack to cool.

Gingerbread House

Gumdrops, candy canes, marshmallows and more!  Valerie was determined to make a gingerbread house with the kids this year, and I think we came up with a delightful little candy clad cottage.

Gingerbread house kits abound at the stores these days, but to me that feels like cheating.  It's just my nature to try to make things from scratch; especially things that are edible, so I figured a gingerbread house should be no different.

I modeled the gingerbread house design from the Santa houses that Nonna and Grandpa used to make.  I measured the dimensions of the Santa house and cut templates out of construction paper.  I found a recipe online for the gingerbread and got to work.

I rolled out the dough, put the templates down, and cut around the templates.  I baked the gingerbread and then cut around the templates again after it came out of the oven.  I whipped up some royal icing and waited for the pieces of the house to cool before assembly.

It was nerve wracking working with those pieces of gingerbread, knowing that one could snap if I made one wrong move.  Thankfully, the pieces held together and the house went up without any issues.  The house was ready for decorations, and the kids were all too ready to help.

I was also nervous watching Ari and Emilie's little hands as they put the decorations on.  There was one mishap early, but it was easy to fix, and they were otherwise very delicate and careful with the way they worked.  I am delighted with the way our gingerbread house turned out; it has just the right amount of character and charm.

Best of the season

I have been experiencing this Christmas season from a different perspective. With Ari turning three in January, this is the first year he has shown real joy and excitement regarding Christmas. He was thrilled to see presents under the tree, he points out Christmas lights as we are driving down the street, and he wants to listen to Christmas music. I am starting to see the magic of Christmas in his innocence, and it has brought back so many memories of Christmases gone by.
I have also been intrigued by A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens this year. Not that I am a Scrooge (I think of myself as more of a Bob Cratchit type or Scrooge's nephew Fred). I think I have been so captivated by this story because the resurfacing memories of Christmas past, coupled with these new feelings of Christmas present, have been quite sentimental and almost spiritual for me. Also, the thoughts of all the Christmas's yet to come as Ari and Emilie grow, fills me with a sense of wonder and excitement all my own.
Wishing you all a wonderful Christmas!