1 cup butter
1/2 cup plus 1 TBS sugar
1 egg
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 tsp almond extract
2 1/2 cups flour
Colored sugar or candies for decorating.
If you wish to make a light, pastel colored dough, add: 4 TBS fruit-flavored Jell-O gelatin, minus the 1 TBS sugar,
Preheat oven to 400F degrees.
Cream butter and add sugar. Mix for about 2 or 3 minutes. Blend in egg, salt, extracts and flour. Mix well. Knead dough in hands until it is soft and pliable.
It is best if you make the cookies immediately and do not refrigerate the dough. However, if you do refrigerate, the dough will be very firm. Let it come to room temperature before using so the dough is pliable enough to work with.
Press the dough through a Spritz cookie press onto an ungreased and cold cookie sheet. Also, do not use parchment paper. It may take several attempts to get the cookie machine to produce a properly formed cookie.
Decorate with sprinkles, jimmies or colored sugar, if desired. If your colored sugar or sprinkles don't stick, and they just roll off your cookie, dip your finger in water and then dip your finger in the sugar/sprinkles and pat them onto your cookie so they stick.
Bake for about 8 minutes or until edges just begin to turn light brown. Do not overbake.
You will need to wipe the grease from the cookie sheet with a paper towel and possibly put the cookie sheet in the refrigerator for a couple minutes to get it cold again before pressing out the next batch of cookies.
The baking time will be different depending on the cookie die that you choose. Stars are smaller and may not take as long to bake as a Christmas tree, Christmas bell or a flower, which are a little thicker cookie. Therefore, do not put stars on the same sheet as the thicker cookies.
Makes about 6 dozen cookies
Janice
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