Spritz cookies

This fall, I signed up for my second The Great Food Blogger Cookie Swap.  In case you missed my post last year, here's a quick rundown: It's really a fantastic event -- a cookie swap of epic proportions, so to speak.  The premise is this: sign up.  Get 3 matches emailed to you.  Bake 3 dozen cookies.  Mail 1 dozen cookies to each match.  Receive 1 dozen cookies from 3 bloggers who received your name as their match.  Blog about your cookies.  And the best part (the other best part, the best part besides receiving 3 dozen cookies mailed.  to.  your.  door!)?  Your $4 admission fee goes to Cookies for Kids' Cancer -- which really helps combine two of my passions: baking and helping kids (I am a pediatric nurse practitioner, after all!).

So last year I made some killer cranberry shortbread cookies.  They were awesome.  I actually made them four different ways, and ended up deciding the cranberry ones were the best.  This year I went with a classic spritz cookie.  A delicious crumbly not-to-sweet butter cookie that I topped with just a sprinkling of colorful nonpareils for a pop of color.  b and his mom were more than happy to be my taste testers for these a few days before I made my cookie swap cookies.  His coworkers were huge fans, too!

Spritz Cookies 
From America's Test Kitchen Step by Step Holiday Baking

Ingredients:

1 large egg yolk
1 Tbsp heavy cream
1 tsp vanilla extract
16 Tbsp unsalted butter, softened
2/3 cups sugar
1/4 tsp salt
2 cps all-purpose flour

Directions:

Adjust oven rack to middle position.
Heat oven to 375F.
Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper.
Set aside.

Whisk egg yolk, cream, and vanilla in a small bowl until combined.
Set aside.

Using a stand mixer with the paddle attachment, beat butter, sugar, and salt on medium-high speed until pale and fluffy, about 3 minutes.
Scrape down bowl as needed.
Reduce speed to medium.
Add egg yolk mixture.
Beat until incorporated.

Reduce speed to low.
Gradually beat in flour until combined, scraping down bowl as needed.
Give dough a final stir by hand.

If using cookie press, follow directions on the press.  If using pastry bag, insert star tip and fill bag halfway with dough.  (I used different tips to make different shapes.)
Hold the bag at a 90 degree angle about 1/2 inch above the prepared tray.
Pipe cookies, spacing them about 1.5 inches apart.
Refill cookie press/pastry bag as needed.
Bake cookies, 1 sheet at a time, until light golden brown, 10-12 minutes.
Rotate sheet halfway through baking.

Let cookies cool on sheets for 10-15 minutes.
Transfer to wire rack to cool.
Let cool completely before serving (or packaging up to mail ;-)).

Cranberry shortbread cookies -- The Great Food Blogger Cookie Swap

This fall, I signed up for The Great Food Blogger Cookie Swap.  It's really a fantastical event -- a cookie swap of epic proportions, so to speak.  The premise is this: sign up.  Get 3 matches emailed to you.  Bake 3 dozen cookies.  Mail 1 dozen cookies to each match.  Receive 1 dozen cookies from 3 bloggers who received your name as their match.  Blog about your cookies. (Check out the logo on the top right side of my blog.)

And the best part (the other best part, the best part besides receiving 3 dozen cookies mailed.  to.  your.  door!)?  Your $4 admission fee goes to Cookies for Kids' Cancer -- which really helps combine two of my passions: baking and helping kids (I am a pediatric nurse practitioner, after all!).

So here's the thing....you have to mail your cookies.  I was so afraid of my cookies breaking that I went out and bought cute tins to put them in.  Then, I sorta padded the tins -- in the bottom at least.  Then, I layered my cookies in the tin, topped them with a little more padding, and then packaged them up.  I went to the post office and mailed the cookies to my matches, and then prayed that they survived their journeys to Utah and upstate New York.  Fingers were crossed!!  (As a side note, as of the time I wrote this blog post, I heard from two of the cookie recipients that they received -- and loved -- their cookies....and that they arrived intact!!)

Now that you know about this fantastic event and what it entails, I'm sure you're wondering what kind of cookies I baked!  The answer is....a variety.  Well, sorta. You know me -- I never make things easy for myself!  So I made a variety of shortbread cookies and then made my poor boyfriend taste test the four flavors to decide what kind to mail to my matches.  Sometimes I'm just the meanest girlfriend ever, making him taste four different kinds of cookies.  I mean, seriously!!

In the end, I went with my original flavor choice, dried cranberries, because cranberries are oh-so-holiday festive.

Cranberry Shortbread Cookies

Ingredients:

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature

3/4 cup sugar

2 Tbsp milk

1 tsp vanilla extract

2 1/2 cups all purpose flour

1/2 tsp salt

3/4 - 1 cup dried cranberries, chopped

Directions:

Chop the cranberries by hand or in a food processor into smaller pieces.

Set aside.

In a large bowl, using a mixer, cream the butter and sugar together on medium speech until fluffy.

Add milk and vanilla.

Beat to combine.

With the mixer on low, gradually add the flour and salt.

Continue beating until the dough forms.

Add the chopped cranberries.

Mix with a spatula to combine.

Divide the dough into 2 portions.

Shape each piece into a log.

Wrap logs in plastic wrap.

Place in the freezer for 30 minutes.

Then, move to the fridge for another 30 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 350F.

Using a sharp knife, cut each log into thin slices, about 1/4 inch thick.

Place cookies onto a ungreased cookie sheet (I used a parchment lined cookie sheet).

Bake until edges are just starting to turn brown, about 12 minutes (mine took about 10 minutes).

Remove from the oven.

Place cookies on a wire rack to cool.