Thank-you for the recipe with such a fine endorsement! My mother used to make spritz cookies when I was small, but she hated making them and they weren't as good as the other cookies. Sometimes a very small tweak can make all the difference! I'm going to abscond with her press (I think it's still there) and try your recipe one of these days...

I've made my Danish butter cookies using a friend's cookie press, but I do not have one myself:

Lars’
Danish Butter Cookies

1-1/4
cups unsalted butter, softened
1-1/4 cups granulated sugar
3
egg yolks
2-1/4
cups sifted all-purpose flour
1
teaspoon baking soda
1
teaspoon cream of tartar
1-1/2
teaspoons Amaretto

Cream butter and sugar. Beat egg yolks in, one at a time. Add remaining
ingredients; mix well. Chill dough. Roll dough into small balls and place on an
ungreased cookie sheet. Press dough with any press or glass dipped in sugar.
Bake at 325 degrees for 12 to 15 minutes. Remove immediately from cookie sheet
and cool.

Yield: about 30
cookies

Variations:

You can substitute other flavorings for the
Amaretto, such as a bit of grated lemon rind or 1/2 tsp vanilla or coconut. Cardamom can also be used for flavoring, but only 1/4 tsp.

Thanks, Lars. I've saved your recipe too. :)

Cheese straws are fun with a cookie press. I sprinkle a little salt on top

http://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/1014379-southern-cheese-straws

Thanks for the reminder, I have Grandma's old hand cranked cookie press with all the different little inserts to make various shapes and pipe whipped cream, frosting, etc.

I've used Lars' recipe before and it's delicious, but I didn't put it through the cookie press. Thanks Carol, for that recipe, and aunt petunia for the reminder about cheese straws. I haven't made those in a long time either.

Annie

Unless.... Lars, by "press" did you mean mold? The Danes make lots of molded cookies...

Ooh yes! Cheese straws - I'd almost forgotten I need to make some for New Years Eve = )

Congrats Joan. I used Betty Crocker's Spritz recipe for years until I tried the one below and found its delicacy to my liking.

I found with different recipes that some Spritz doughs needed to be room temperature to press out a perfect shape and other Spritz doughs needed to be chilled. I don't remember if these Swedish Butter Cookies (Spritz) needed chilling or not. I always cracked the egg, saving the white, and lowered the yolk in its half shell into boiling water. Used the whites for meringues. Ahh, days when we were broke.

***Swedish Butter Cookies - by Fritzi Condee
1/2 C. butter
2 hard cooked egg yolks, sieved
1/4 C. sugar
1/2 tsp. lemon or almond extract
1 C. flour, sifted

Cream butter, beat in sieved yolks, sugar and extract.
Stir in flour. Put through cookie gun.
I garnish with half a candied cherry on the poinsettia shape and an almond cut in half lengthwise on another. .
Ungreased sheet, 375 degrees, 10 min.

Thanks Irisgal_z9, I'm tempted to start with your recipe, just because it's not a huge recipe, to see how I make out .

I'm not Lars, but I am sure by "press" he didn't mean mold....he meant press with a cookie press. If you don't know what one looks like, google it. Molded cookies are usual Springerle while cookies made using a press can be many different kinds.

I don't bake much, but I received a cookie press as a gift many years ago, and this has been my "go to" recipe: Nana's Spritz Cookies. I change up the flavorings, and even add very finely ground nuts, if I have the energy (I didn't this year, just lemon and almond flavors for Christmas).

Nana's Spritz recipe looks almost exactly like my Uncle Barney's, except for the flavoring. Thinking it may be from the 50s or earlier, since he stopped baking in the 80s, when he was in his 80s...

Linda, I'm not saying you're wrong, but I do know what a cookie press is. As I said, I am going to take my mother's since it's high quality. It was these directions in Lars's recipe that made me ask about molds: "Roll dough into small balls and place on an
ungreased cookie sheet. Press dough with any press or glass dipped in sugar." The Danes use a lot of different kinds of cookie molds.

FWIW, I've come across a number of recipes for molded/pressed cookies in older cookbooks that instruct you to either roll the dough into balls & press w/ a fork or glass or use a cookie press...

Carolb, thanks, that's why I was asking, if it was meant to be molded/stamped, or if it was one of those "or use a press" recipes.

Well I tried my cookie press today for the first time. Made the Chocolate Pillow one and they turned out great. Then I tried a shortbread cookie, and although the dough seemed very similar in consistency, they just wouldn't come out right, so I ended up rolling and cutting them out. Does anyone have a recipe for shortbread that is good for a cookie press? I was so anxious to try out the different discs.