Helloooooo! I hope you’ve been busy enjoying holiday parties and other festive activities! I actually had all sorts of posts planned this month on Christmas shopping, packing for the holidays, and European Christmas cookie recipes, but alas it’s already 5 days until Christmas and here I am on my first post. What can you do? So sorry for the silence on my end–I recently started a new job and am working longer hours. Hopefully I’ll get a little more organized in the coming months and post more regularly again.

And now, on to the cookies! I’m sure many of you have family recipes that have been passed down from generation to generation. When I was growing up most of the cookies in our house centered around Scandinavian and German cookies. Now that I’m married, it’s been fun to experience my husband’s cookie traditions as well. The one cookie that both of our families are big on is Spritz, short for Spritzgebäck. Spritz cookies are small, dry, and buttery. If you like shortbread cookies, I have a feeling you’ll probably like these.

“Spritz” means squirt in German, which should come as no surprise because to make them you use a cookie press that literally squirts out the dough into shapes like trees and wreaths.

This the perfect cookie to make if you don’t have a lot of time, but want to have something homemade at your party or to bring into the office. And unlike sugar cookies, which involve a lot of time decorating, these are pretty much foolproof as far as decorating goes.

Here is my Mom’s recipe:

Preheat oven to 400 degrees

• 1 cup butter (softened)
• ½ cup sugar
• 2 ½ cup flour
• ½ tsp salt
• 1 egg
• 1 tsp. vanilla extract

Cream butter and sugar together. Blend in remaining ingredients. Fill cookie press (1/4 dough at a time) and squirt dough onto an ungreased baking sheet.

Bake 6-9 minutes or until set but not brown.

Sprinkle with colored sugars before baking. Enjoy!

Do you have a traditional cookie that your family makes every year? I’d love to hear!

xo,

Jenny