| 1 | cup butter, softened |
| 1/2 | cup sugar |
| 2 1/4 | cups Gold Medal® all-purpose flour |
| 1/4 | teaspoon salt |
| 1 | egg |
| 1/4 | teaspoon almond extract or vanilla |
| Food color, if desired |
| Currants, raisins, candies, colored sugar, finely chopped nuts, candied fruit or fruit peel, if desired |
| 1. | Heat oven to 400ºF. Beat butter and sugar in large bowl with electric mixer on medium speed, or mix with spoon. Stir in flour, salt, egg, almond extract and a few drops of food color. |
| 2. | Place dough in cookie press. Form desired shapes on ungreased cookie sheet. Decorate with currants. |
| 3. | Bake 5 to 8 minutes or until set but not brown. Immediately remove from cookie sheet to wire rack. To decorate cookies after baking, use a drop of corn syrup to attach decorations to cookies. |
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| The name spritz comes from the German word spritzen, meaning "to squirt" because the soft dough is squirted or pushed through a cookie press to make fancy designs. |
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| Butter is responsible for the tender, rich texture and flavor of these incredible cookies. Margarine would not work nearly as well. For these cookies, stick with butter! |
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Chocolate Spritz: Stir 2 ounces unsweetened baking chocolate, melted and cooled, into the butter-sugar mixture.
Holiday Spritz: Substitute rum extract for the almond extract or vanilla; tint dough with appropriate food colors. After baking, glaze cooled cookies with Butter-Rum Glaze: Melt 1/4 cup butter or margaine over low heat; remove from heat. Stir in 1 cup powdered sugar and 1 teaspoon rum extract. Stir in 1 to 2 tablespoons hot water until glaze is spreadable. Tint glaze with food color to match cookies if desired.
Spice Spritz: Stir in 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon, 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg and 1/4 teaspoon ground allspice with the flour. |
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| To ensure recipe success, do not use self-rising flour in this recipe. |
Nutrition Information:
45 ( 25 ); 3 g ( 2 g); 10 mg; 25 mg; 4 g ( 0g); 1 g 2 %; 0%; 0%; 0% 1