Food Fun Friday: Lemon Spritz Cookies

Welcome back to Food Fun Friday. I feel like I've been focusing on desserts, but considering how much I enjoy sweets, it's only reasonable I pay lots of attention to it. But I do promise, I'll be posting recipes for main dishes.

About a week ago, I got the munchies while watching my Saturday night programs, and I only had just enough stuff to make one of my favorite late night treat -- Lemon Spritz Cookies

Delicious Lemon Spritz Cookies

I didn't quite follow the recipe because I was missing some of the ingredients, but they still came out great.

Ingredients:

1 c butter, softened (I used shortening)
2/3 c sugar
1 egg, slightly beaten
2 1/4 c flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp lemon extract

I like a little more flavor in my cookies so I added: 

1 tsp vanilla 
1 tsp lemon juice

these are optional so you don't have to add them unless you want to.

the dough

Directions:

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Cream butter; mix in sugar and egg. Add remaining ingredients and mix well. 
Roll dough into a log and refrigerate for thirty minutes. (I didn't do this because I was too hungry to wait) 

the cookie press

Place dough into cookie press and use the design you like best. Press cookies onto an ungreased cookie sheet, sprinkle with decorations, if desired.

I like the stars, but many cookie presses
 have over a dozen shapes from
hearts to Christmas trees

If you want to make them during the holidays, you can add a few drops of food coloring to make the cookies more festive.

Bake for 8-10 minutes or until edges turn golden brown.

yummy finished product

Spritz cookies can be made with or without the lemon extract. You can use almond extract, cinnamon, even pumpkin pie spice or nutmeg. The spritz cookies taste great with hot chocolate, tea, or coffee.

Enjoy!