CREAM CHEESE SPRITZ COOKIES

Cream Cheese Spritz Cookies image

No Christmas cookie table should be without a spritz cookie and I'm not talking about the store bought kind. This is a fun cookie to get the kids involved in too. I can't tell you how many cookie presses I've gone through trying to find the right press. Or how many I've sold in a yard sale because I thought I just could not...

Provided by Diane Atherton

Categories Cookies

Time 20m

Number Of Ingredients 9

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Ingredients

1 c butter, room temperature
3 oz cream cheese, room temperature
1 c sugar
1 large egg yolk
1 tsp almond extract
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
1/2 tsp butter flavoring
2 1/2 c all purpose flour
1/2 tsp salt

Steps:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. On a medium speed, cream butter and cream cheese until creamy; add sugar. Mix until light and fluffy.
3. Mix in egg yolk and favorings.
4. Reduce speed to low on mixer and gradually add flour and salt. Cookie dough will be soft. Add additional flour if too sticky. However, don't add so much that the dough is too stiff to go through your press.
5. You can now color your dough with food coloring if desired. I work with 1/4 of the dough at a time. Form 3 balls of dough and load into the canister or you can form a log. Just don't add to much or it will be difficult to work with.
6. Press into desired shape on to a cookie sheet. Bake for 10 to 12 minutes until the edges turn a light brown. IF using sprinkles or colored sugars add before baking to ensure they stick, otherwise you will need to frost the cookies to make spinkles or sugar stick.
7. TIPS: dough must be pliable, if very warm, chill a short time, if too cold, it will crmble only use a 1/4 of the dough at a time, so it doesn't warm up if baking sheet is too warm, fat in the dough will melt and cookies will pull away from sheet when press is lifted freezing your cookie sheet will help cookies to release from press and hold to the sheet when lifted spraying canister with cooking spray help with the ease of pressing the dough through the canister
8. Use sprinkles, colored sugars, candy beads, m&m's, gumdrops, etc to decorate your cookies. You can glaze and decorate after baking or add sprinkles before baking to ensure they stick or just bake and eat them plain. You can use a dab of buttercream frosting to stick decorative candies on your cookies... Have fun!