12 Days of Christmas: Day 10

In college, my roommate and good friend Kathleen and I would bake Christmas cookies and give them out to our friends. She introduced me to this recipe for Chocolate Butter Spritz Cookies, and I loved them. You see, in my family there really are no chocolate cookies on Christmas. We have our oatmeal, sugar, and butter, and a few other variations of the butter - including some rolled in chopped nuts and topped with jam - but no chocolate. I was pleasantly surprised to find out how much I love chocolate butter cookies!

This recipe is a little different than my Grandma's butter cookies, in that it just has flour - no salt or baking powder. I was a little concerned about the lack of salt, because one of my favorite things about the butter cookies is their balance of salt and butteriness, but I actually like it. It's a bit different but still great.

This year I really over-extended myself on my baking - I was very ambitious and bit off a little more than I could chew (no pun intended). Thankfully, my wonderful husband came to the rescue! I had made the batches of dough days before and stored them in the freezer/fridge, so as I worked on other baking and assembled other treats, Bob pressed these cookies and decorated them. I think he did a great job! His coloring of my Grandma's Butter Cookies is so vibrant, and he decorated them very creatively.

For the press cookies, I usually do half topped with crushed peppermint (seriously SO good!) and half with just red hots, colored sugar, sprinkles, etc. Some of the cookies that got the finely crushed peppermint, which was like a powder, don't even look like they have peppermint because it baked in - it's such a great flavor.

Chocolate Butter Spritz

My Grandma's Butter Cookies

Chocolate Butter Spritz Cookies

Ingredients:

1 cup (2 sticks) butter, at room temperature

1/2 cup confectioners/powdered sugar

1/2 cup packed brown sugar

1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

1 egg yolk

2 Tablespoons creme de cacao or milk

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 1/3 cups all-purpose flour

optional decorations: sprinkles, crushed peppermint, etc.

Directions:

Preheat oven to 375.

1. Beat butter with a stand or electric mixer on medium-high for 30 seconds. Add sugars and cocoa powder until combined.

2. Beat in egg yolk, milk (or creme de cacao), and vanilla. Add flour.

3. Use a cookie press or roll dough in small balls and flatten slightly. Place 1-inch apart on ungreased baking sheets.

4. Decorate as desired. Bake for 8-10 minutes or until edges are firm but not brown (this sounds kind of odd since they are brown cookies, but you get the idea).

5. Remove from sheets and cool on a rack.

Source: Adapted from Kathleen K.