Baking Challenge Week 6 - Elegant - Tiger Lily Spritz

I had planned this week to make meringues and experiment with piping and food coloring--something like this.  But I neglected to clean my utensils diligently enough, so my meringue never got anywhere close to stiff enough to pipe properly.  I've made meringues successfully before, but I do still have a batch fail on me now and again, so I was disappointed but not heartbroken.


Instead, I chose to apply the same principle of food coloring stripes to my cookie press, and turn out a batch of spritz, which have never failed.  Ever.  This recipe is foolproof.

I added a healthy smidge of peach gel coloring to the dough, not that you can really tell--it made the cookies faintly pinkish instead of butter yellow.  I striped red gel coloring along the inside of my cookie press with the end of a piece of spaghetti--I couldn't find my paintbrushes!--and the resulting color combination sort of reminded me of tiger lilies, hence the name...it wasn't what I was really going for, but it looks pretty cool anyway.

Spritz

• 1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 1 egg
• 1 tsp vanilla extract (or almond, if you like)
• 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

Beat the butter and sugar together until creamy and well-blended.  Add the egg and vanilla and mix well.  Gradually incorporate the flour until a smooth dough forms.

Pack the dough into a cookie press fitted with the design plate of your choice.  Press cookies onto chilled, ungreased baking sheets.  Bake at 375 F for 7-10 minutes, until just set and golden.  Cool on wire racks.  Clean and chill baking sheets, if necessary, before reusing them for another batch.

To make the cookies without a press, pinch off pieces of dough and roll to form 3/4-inch balls.  Place 2 inches apart on chilled, ungreased baking sheets and flatten either with the bottom of a glass or the tines of a fork in a crisscross pattern (just like peanut butter cookies!)