The Carnitarian Family: Spritz Cookies

I think everyone has that *one* thing that makes Christmas, Christmas. Maybe it's the tree, seeing lights, listening to Christmas music or putting up decorations. For me, it's cookies (surprise, surprise). But, not just any cookie my friends. Spritz cookies. I remember being younger and making these little 2-bite cookies with my mom at Christmas. That is the only time of year that we made them. They're so simple, only 6 easy ingredients, but so tasty! You do need a Spritz Cookie press to make them and I just so happen to have the original cookie press that my mom and I used when I was a child. Yes, it's outdated, but it works so well. My mom was once given a new, updated, fancy press, but she returned it because she said nothing works as well as the original. If it ain't broke, don't try to fix it! If you were to go out today and buy a press, it would look a little something like this:

If you were to come to my house to make these yummy treats, you'd use something that looks like this:

Old school at its finest people.

Ingredients:
1 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
1/2 cup sugar
1 egg
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp extract - peppermint, almond, vanilla, etc. (Almond is my flavorite.....get it, flavorite!?)
2 1/4 cup flour
Optional: food coloring and sprinkles

Directions:
1. Mix butter, sugar, egg, salt, extract and flour until well combined. Add a few drops of food coloring and mix until dough is to desired color.
2. Load up your cookie press with the dough and desired cookie mold. Press cookies onto cookie sheet and decorate with sprinkles, red hots, etc.