BAKE: Yule Love these Homemade Spritz Cookies (no cookie press needed)
A classic addition to any festive holiday cookie plate, these delicately flavored homemade spritz butter cookies are far more delicious than the bland store bought ones.
While you can certainly use a cookie press for these if you have one, all you really need to make homemade spritz cookies is a sturdy piping bag (I recommend Ateco or another sturdy, lined fabric bag pastry) and a large open star tip. 
You can also play around with other tips (flat ribbon cookies are very nice) to get different effects, but you can make a ton of different shapes and designs with just the basic open star tip!
Getting the temperature of the dough right is important for easy piping. Too warm, and the texture of the final cookies can suffer, but too cold, and it will tear your piping bag or be exhausting to try to pipe! Err on the side of warmer when you mix your dough (make sure your butter is soft and your eggs are at room temperature).
You can dye the dough festive colors with food-safe coloring, decorate them with sprinkles or colorful sugars before you bake, drizzle with royal icing after they cool, or just leave them plain. It’s up to you!
Holiday baking is one of my favorite traditions, and these are one of my favorite cookies to bake (and eat!). I started making these when I was just a kid, and it’s a great activity to get kids involved in the kitchen (if you don’t have a cookie press, an adult may have to pipe the cookies and let the kids decorate them- the pastry bag can be hard for little hands to squeeze).
Once you try these, yule want to make these homemade spritz cookies for your Christmas cookie plates every holiday season!
Hand-Piped Holiday Spritz Cookies
Ingredients
- 2 cups butter one pound, softened
- 1 ½ cups sugar
- 3 large egg yolks (or 4 medium yolks)
- ½ tsp salt
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
- 2 tsp almond extract (if omitted, double the vanilla)
- 4 cups all-purpose flour
- food coloring (optional, add drop by drop until desired color is reached)
- sprinkles, colored or sparkle sugar (optional)
Instructions
- Cream softened butter either by hand or with the paddle attachment of a mixer until smooth, scrape down the sides of the bowl, and add sugar. Continue creaming the butter and sugar together, stopping a few times to scrape the sides and horn of the bowl (if applicable), until the mixture is light and fluffy.
- Add the salt and the egg yolks, one at a time, and the vanilla and almond extract. Scrape the sides of the bowl and mix again until the mixture is well-emulsified.
- Add the flour, one cup at a time, mixing only a few seconds between each addition, stopping to scrape the sides and paddle of the mixer. If mixing by hand, fold the flour gently in to the wet ingredients. Mix until well combined.
- Divide dough into several bowls- one for each color you plan to dye your base dough. I like to do a big batch of green for making wreaths and trees, and divide the rest between plain and red for stars and accents. Yellow for stars and bells is also a nice addition if you want more variety.
- Add a spoonful of dough to your piping bag fitted with a large star tip (½" diameter open star tip is a good one to start with) and check the consistency. If the dough is too stiff to pipe easily, you can add up to a few tablespoons of milk to thin the dough slightly. When the consistency is right, fill your piping bag(s) no more than two-thirds full and pipe your cookies.
- If you have multiple bags and tips you can fill them all at once, or do one color at a time and wash the bag between batches. I like to pipe the green dough first into wreath shapes and trees, then decorate them with the red and white doughs and pipe plenty of contrasting cookies to make a colorful cookie plate.
- Preheat the oven to 350℉. Get your cookie sheets ready and line them with nonstick silicone baking liners or parchment paper so the cookies don't stick to the sheets and break.
- To pipe the wreath cookies, pipe a series of small stars in a circle, or overlapping shell shapes. Experiment with different piping techniques to find the look you like the best and stick with it. Try to keep the size of the cookies consistent on a single baking sheet so that they cook evenly (don't pipe tiny stars on the same sheet as a large cookie, or they'll be done at different times).
- If you are using decorative sugar or sprinkles, add these to the dough before baking. You can also leave them plain, and decorate them with royal icing after they have baked and cooled.
- Bake for 9-12 minutes, or until the cookies are just set to the touch but not browning. Remove from oven and let cool for a few minutes, then use a thin metal spatula to transfer to wire racks to cool. If you are doing a big batch and need to reuse cookie sheets, make sure the sheets cool between batches before piping more cookies.