Spritz/ Cookie-Press cookie questions

[masha]

The posts on the "What Cookies are you making this year?" thread have inspired me to perhaps try spritz cookies. I've got my mother's old Mirro press, still in the original box, which I have never used since she gave it to me (but remember making cookies with her when I was a girl). Fortunately, I have the instruction booklet, which includes a number of recipes. But does anyone have any recipes and/or tips for a novice Spritz cookie maker? Right now I am leaning towards a recipe called "Orange Crips," as I've already made cut-out sugar/butter cookies and am inclined towards a different flavor profile.

Also a really dumb question: Do you put on sprinkles before or after the cookies bake? I've been icing my sugar cookies and its been such eons since I've made cookies with sprinkles I really cannot recall.

[Splendid Spatula]

It wouldn't be Christmas in our house without the Christmas Tree cookies made with an ancient Mirro press. The recipe is in the little booklet. We make them green, but this year we got radical, and tinted half the dough RED. Wow. Definitely sprinkle/decorate before baking. My mom used to put cinammon red hots on the tree cookies, now we do sugars and snowflakes and various sprinkles. Don't grease the pan, and they'll release OK with just a little backtwist of the press.

[shallots]

With my fifty year old aluminum Mirro press, the "Little back twist" is the key to getting a good shape.

Something my Mother did was make the wreath shaped cookies, and she'd put a red half of a candied cherry in some and green half cherries in the others. A good presentation.

[Taylordayne]

Saw your post about an Apple Stack Cake, my husband is from south west Virginia. I made he one of these last year and it was awful, wasted alot of our homemade apple butter that we made over a fire in a 10 gallon copper kettle. Please send receipe I would love to surprise him.

[roxlet]

Wreath cookies can also be made using a pastry bag and the appropriate tip.

[iL Divo]

Splendid, is yours hand crank or squeeze trigger kind of press?

[toveggiegirl]

The America's Test Kitchen recipe has pretty detailed instructions. If you have a membership, you can access the recipe (plus diagrams) on their website or you can get the recipe here:
http://www.food.com/recipe/spritz-cookies-with-variations-americas-test-kitchen-444005

You can also watch the ATK video here:
http://www.americastestkitchen.com/vi...

[morwen]

I tried to make spritz cookies this year for the first time and had an absolute failure. I used a King Arthur Flour recipe for the dough and a Pampered Chef press I found brand new in a thrift shop. I thought the consistency of the dough seemed a little stiff when I loaded the press but having never made them before I carried on. The press seemed to work fine but despite following all the tips I read concerning chilling the cookie sheets, not using parchment, etc., the dough would neither stick to the sheets nor release from the press. Cutting it off with a knife or scissors didn't work either. I think is was the dough. What's the consistency supposed to be like?

[HillJ]

The consistency of soft playdough. I have never tried the PC press so I can't comment on the tool. Give the Wilton dough recipe, posted above, a try?

[morwen]

I'll try it. I've already bookmarked it. Thanks!

[iL Divo]

HillJ, I'll be giving it a try today for work cookies tomorrow.
fingers are crossed because of the press I'll be using.

again to anyone wanting a good cookie, make the chewy sugar cookies from ATK or was it CI, either way, they are wonderful. hubby ate 4 after dinner last night [and I have no affiliation with them, they're just a real refreshing recipe, cause they work]

[iL Divo]

funny you mentioned PC as I bought a little medal cylinder bread/loaf cantainer from them.
it's sort of flower shaped and you make the dough, stick it in there, put ends on, and bake.
last night from scratch rye bread went in there. so good. my husband thinks I'm a genius for creating such a cute little loaf and can't figure how I managed it. finally had to show him the mold, I think I blew my cover......hahahahah

[greygarious]

I don't recall having this problem years ago when I borrowed a neighbor's metal spritz press, and don't know what kind of baking sheet I was using, but with the equipment I now use, I find some of the shapes won't completely release from the press, and don't want to adhere to the pan. It's been a few years --- as I remember, Iast time I used the recipe on the press box but probably used white whole wheat flour rather than AP, which might be the problem. My caution is to try another disc if you aren't getting good results with the shape you are trying to use.

[HillJ]

Or spray the inside of the metal spritz can and disks lightly with organic cooking spray before using.

[masha]

I had problems getting the cookies to adhere to the baking sheet, when I'd covered it with parchment paper. I ditched the parchment paper and squirted the cookies out directly onto the metal and that was much better. I did have some problems with the cookies being a bit "fatter" than they should be because they released a tad late but I chalked that up to my overall lack of manual dexterity. So, my cookies were somewhat abstract in shape -- especially the "Christmas trees," but they still tasted very good and the abstract swirls in the pattern were pleasing to the eye. The "holly wreaths" were easier to squeeze out in recognizable form.

[ElsieB]

Have used my cookie press for many years making mother's shortbread cookies and learned that if I chill my sheet pans before pressing the cookies on they 'stick' to the pan much better. I do live in the Northeast so it's cold out and I have about a dozen sheet pans so rotating hot and cold is pretty easy.

[paprkutr]

Would you please post your mom's recipe, if it's not too much trouble. TIA

[chowser]

I had the same problem on silpat. It works fine directly on the sheet pan. I also have to be patient and squeeze, release and then pull up the cookie press.

[masha]

I had not realized the part about pulling back up on the press, once the cookie was formed. It was probably somewhere in the part of the instruction manual that I did not read. Thanks for the tip.

[iL Divo]

now see that's my problem in the past. the dough not releasing.
again though, if I'd known of a lever type and not the screw version, I'd have been better off.
guess now that's why I see so many varieties out there that aren't the squeeze trigger kind.
dang...
thankful for recipes HillJ and all

anyone have or use a hand crank version? scared to ask for fear of being called foolish for not checking out best method to purchase, so hiding behind a couch for now ;(

[HillJ]

Hi iL D, my pleasure (even after all this time)
My baking partner just ran a batch of gingerbread spritz cookies thru the gun two days ago.
Off season, sales for the press are pretty common.

[iL Divo]

thanks for the info. I'll be checking out the sale racks as soon as I can.
I just posted this over on the thread I started which is specifically about cookie presses, however mine being the crank style and here is my report. only putting it here for ease of those not wanting to jump to the other thread...

just whipped out the cookie press, made recipe as per provided here and got NOWHERE.
not holding their shape, not adhering to the cookie sheet, just an all in all mess. I'm chucking the cookie press. anyone want a really pretty all copper cookie press? it's yours, I'll even mail it or it goes to Salley Annettes or Good Willing...
I put the dough, which is delicious by the way, into a really sturdy quart sized zipper bag, snipped off an end and did a piping of straws. otherwise, didn't know what to do with the dough.
so now, I have 4" thin straws. guess this is not my forte *&@*%^

[HillJ]

iLD, before you chuck the copper cookie press in the trash, consider using it for other purposes. It might not work on cookie dough but what about as an icing, whipped cream, glaze or butter decorator?

[iL Divo]

Gosh that's a great idea HillJ.
My husband feels badly for me due to an honest
effort. He says over the weekend he'll attempt another batch with me.
He thinks they could actually work but maybe I need certain dexterity.

[paulj]

Usually my parents made the simple strips (with a combed top). Some were sprinkled, but it's the thin fragile strip that I recall best.

[iL Divo]

PaulJ, my husband was looking at the various dies trying to figure out what shapes the eventually make and when he came to the comb (although I tried to explain) he just scratched his head. Pretty cute he is...

[HillJ]

Sprinkles before you bake, chocolate drizzle or dip after you bake.
http://www.wilton.com/recipe/Classic-... for the basic recipe.
We've gone through half a dozen spritz "guns" over the years and currently have a Wilton so the recipe above is printed on the box. Works great! We tint the dough, we had flavorings, oils, crushed nuts, edible flower petals, and sprinkles to create a variety. Happy baking!

[masha]

tinted dough! Great idea that I had not even thought of.

[masha]

Hill J - A belated thank you for the link to the Wilton recipe, as well as the suggestion of dipping the cookies in chocolate. The Wilton recipe is delicious. I ended up not doing any tinted dough. After they baked, I just dipped 1/2 of each cookie in a chocolate glaze (from the Joy of Cookie) and then dusted with multicolor sprinkles. After hand-decorating a lot of cut-out sugar cookies, that was as much energy as I had left for decorating the spritz cookies. I am definitely doing these again next year.

[HillJ]

masha, that's wonderful I'm so glad the recipe worked for you. The chocolate dip/sprinkles is such a festive choice. Happy Holidays!

[NYCkaren]

HillJ, If you've gone through half a dozen spritz "guns" you must be an expert. Is Wilton the one to get? I want one.

[HillJ]

Absolutely. There are fancier ones. Glass, plastic, metal but we prefer the lightness of the plastic, they hold up to grip and the discs store well in the ring. I keep the gun "loaded" in the refrigerator for all sorts of uses (cookies, cheese, whipped cream, spreads)

[Antilope]

Here are some old newspaper articles about Spritz
cookies and recipes from the Google newspaper archive.

Spritz cookies a rare treat - 1973
http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=SEJPAAAAIBAJ&sjid=TI8DAAAAIBAJ&dq=spritz%20cookies%20tsp%20|%20tbsp%20|%20teaspoon%20|%20teaspoons%20|%20tablespoon%20|%20tablespoons&pg=7182,4464925

Cookies are a seasonal welcome - 1975
http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=EpglAAAAIBAJ&sjid=JPUFAAAAIBAJ&dq=spritz%20cookies%20tsp%20|%20tbsp%20|%20teaspoon%20|%20teaspoons%20|%20tablespoon%20|%20tablespoons&pg=2817,2704635

Turn out cookies easily, quickly - 1971
http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=VN9QAAAAIBAJ&sjid=sWADAAAAIBAJ&dq=spritz%20cookies%20tsp%20|%20tbsp%20|%20teaspoon%20|%20teaspoons%20|%20tablespoon%20|%20tablespoons&pg=7104,2781282

Christmas trims and tastes - 1978
http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=bAsjAAAAIBAJ&sjid=eswFAAAAIBAJ&dq=spritz%20cookies%20tsp%20|%20tbsp%20|%20teaspoon%20|%20teaspoons%20|%20tablespoon%20|%20tablespoons&pg=2938,2060353http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=bAsjAAAAIBAJ&sjid=eswFAAAAIBAJ&dq=spritz%20cookies%20tsp%20|%20tbsp%20|%20teaspoon%20|%20teaspoons%20|%20tablespoon%20|%20tablespoons&pg=2938,2060353

Pressed Cookies Impressive at Christmas - 1978
http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=...

[iL Divo]

I so appreciate seeing these. A fun look back at yesteryear.