I would have to agree that you probably have a cheap version of the press. I went through a few before I realized I would just have to break down and pay a few Euros more for an all metal heavy one.
Here they also have the disks for the meat grinder to make the spritz cookies.
Lisa

Once I was able to make them.....then I had a mess for years.....then some, one a Swedish friend gave me her mother in law's recipe and told me to put the cookie tray into the snow between batches so it would be cold and the cookies would stick....
That helped some...buts till a pain!
you want to make a lot of cookies fast? make bars!
Linda c

Try putting the dough in the fridge for a little bit, maybe the dough is too soft.

I made spritz cookies for years with a mirro cheapie cookie press from the 60s of my Moms. I used the spritz cookie recipe from the old joy of cooking, I think the 70s. I used a nonstick cookie sheet with absolutely no grease. Make sure the press is perfectly vertical and turn until it just squeezes out of the sides. Then quickly lift. It takes a few to get it right. The ones you mess up at first can be put back inside the press.
They are delicious!

I make spritz cookies at least once a year and often a few times in between because it makes a nice big batch for cake stalls and the like. After I have enough dough spritzed out for one cookie, I wind the knob backwards just a little to break it off.

I have my grandma's old mirro press from the 30's or 40's. I only think to use it at Christmas, but haven't had a problem. You have to twist out enough dough so that it starts to squish out the sides and then pull straight up. The dough needs to be fairly soft.

My mom always made lots of butter cookies every Christmas with her mirro press. She would color the dough with food coloring and the cookies were really pretty, true to color and trimmed with colored jimmies or sugar or silver dragees. She would put two colors in the press for some of the spritz shaped cookies. You have to have the press vertical resting on the cookie sheet and give it kind of an authoritative twist,not too slow, then when the cookie is nicely seated on the cookie sheet, twist the handle slightly in the opposite direction to get it to release the cookie. Here is my mom's butter cookie recipe, which is pretty foolproof:

1 cup butter
cream with
2/3 cup sugar
add
1 egg
add gradually to above mixture:
2 1/2 cups flour
1 tsp. vanilla
1 dash salt

Divide dough into batches that will fill the press, and color with food coloring. Decorate with jimmies or colored sugar before baking. Bake on ungreased sheet at 350 degrees for about 8 minutes. Watch carefully, since you only want them slightly brown on the bottom, not on the tops.

Jaymo reminds me- were you spritzing onto a greased or an ungreased sheet? Sheet should be ungreased to encourage inital "stick" and there's generally enough butter in the recipe to ensure the cookies will release from the sheet once they're baked.

Thanks everyone!
I'll try once more. The ones I made yesterday were horrible looking, but great tasting, and I ate far too many of them! So I need to wait a few days to try another recipe. Otherwise, I'll just keep eating them all!
I made the recipe with lots of cream cheese, but I'm going to try it without it next time. I thought I was doing the pressing right......but it just stuck too badly and all the cookies were deformed.
My daughter liked the taste so much she told me to just make the dough and make plain balls out of it! I suppose if I can't get the hang of it, I could roll the cream cheese dough out and cut little cut-out cookies. But the purpose for my trying these pressed cookies was to crank out alot without too much work.
thanks a bunch for your suggestions!

I like the Italian press, from Wm. Sonoma better than my old Mirro. It's easier to load and It has an adjustable click trigger that is easier to get right for each design. I think the secrets are a dry, cool,not cold, aluminum sheet and room temperature dough. If chilled the design won't stick to the sheet. But if your kitchen is really hot the dough could be too warm. (Never had that problem.)

Do try turning the knob just a touch in reverse if it's coming out too much,i.e. a blob. Really watch the dough come out to get the right amount for each design.

Have you tried the ribbon? Looks like a line with jags on one side. Line it upwith the cooky sheet and keep moving it down the sheet. You get a whole line of cookies. Decorate with sugar or sprinkles then score with a knife. Score again when the come out of oven. Makes a lot of cookies fast.

A pan of shortbread also makes a lot of cookies fast. I just made the recipes from the Tartine cookbook and it was the best shortbread ever. AND this is the fastest recipe if the butter is soft enough. You really don't need a mixer. I use a small glass on it's side to get the top of the battter level before putting in the oven.

P.S. 1 1/2 times the recipe is perfect for a 9x13 pan, more common than the 6x10 in the recipe.

Here is a link that might be useful: Tartine's shortbread

Thanks granjan,
I tried a different recipe tonight, and the dough felt perfect.....but I still got very few of the Christmas trees to come out looking like Christmas trees. I'm about to give up for now.
but I do like your idea about the shortbread. I wondered how you make bars from them when they're baked in a pan, but I just read from the recipe that you score them while they're still warm. That would be alot easier than cutting them all out ahead of time.
Using the glass on its side to level the batter is a great idea!
Thanks for your help!

Here is my Butter Cookie recipe that I have been using in a cookie gun for years and years. Cookie guns, with a trigger like thing, depend on "mostly getting a feel" for when and how to release the trigger which cuts the cookie away from the gun. Practice, practice, practice.
Cream together 1 1/2 cup butter or margarine
l cup to 1 1/2 cup sugar
Add: 1 well beaten egg
Sift together 4 cups flour, reserving some for rolling out
1 tea baking powder
Mix together to form a soft dough. Handling it actually helps to make it go into and press out of the gun easier. I usually make three batches: plain dough and one green and one red (Lots of dye kneeded into dough) ...rolling the dough into logs to insert into the gun. It should be warm (like warm hands), somewhat buttery. Bake at 400 degrees...edges should be barely brown.(The most liked ones are more brown and made with more sugar) Makes a bunch. Good Luck.........Nanny
You might put a towel over the rolls so they don't dry out if you are doing all three batches....and mixing the colors of doughs as you put it into the gun. (the kids particularly love to see the different colors merge) Trees are tricky and gingerbread kids. Larger designs work better.

I'm another who uses Grandma's old Mirro cookie press, it's older than I am and I was born in 1955, LOL, it's got the copper colored top and bottom and aluminum tube.

A cookie shooter would probably be faster and easier, but I remember Grandma coloring the dough green for wreaths and trees, red for poinsettias, carefully decorating them for plates of cookies.

Grandma didn't bake many cookies, she was an "every day" cook and baked all of our bread, wonderful pies and an occasional cake. Most desserts were fruit based, and not frequent so cookies were a really big deal.

I still smile when I use that cookie press. Bud and Makayla "sprinkle" and I tell them that when I was a little girl my own Grandma would let me sprinkle the cookies.

Even with all that nostalgia, using the press is definitely a learning experience. The dough has to be just right, the pans ungreased and the "angle" of the press just right. Even after all these years I screw up the first couple until I "remember" how it needs to be done.

Annie

i too have the screw type Mirro cookie press thing. after i get my chocolate and oatmeal cookies done, i pull out the Mirro and press out the cookies and pack some up to send away so my friends can munch them up. they love the presentation in the tins and the the flavors as well as the shapes and colors at the holidays. my Xmas season is never complete without making pressed cookies.

I have the Pampered Chef cookie press and it is sooooooo easy to use! I just forget I have it. I also try not to bake very often, cause I'll eat it all! I had great results the very first time I used the PC press.

Tami