April 21, 2012 - 11:12am
ITJB Round Two Week 1: Sour Cream Spritz Cookies (4/28/12 - 5/5/12)
I love spritz cookies. For me they are forever associated with Christmas, when my mom would make plates and plates of tree-shaped ones, almond-flavored and impossibly addictive. So I'm looking forward to expanding my spritz-cookie repetoire, and also finding a way to expand their presence into non-holiday seasons as well (it's sort of a shame that I only have them at Christmas. May feels so left out!) I also figured that these would be a relatively simple entree into this semester's baking.
Looking forward to this new semester and everyone's experiences!
Kendra
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I have never made spritz cookies, are those the ones with the decorative rolling pins?... this will be a first for me. Looking forward to the baking, the schedule looks great!
Okay, I read the recipe... piping bag, no roller... now I get it! Duh! Great start, I am thinkin'
Round 2 of this fun challenge has begun! We 3 sisters got up early to get this first week going! We had really missed our "together" baking... These Spritz cookies were an easy recipe, no errata, and perfectly lovely, fluffy, buttery, dough... we all had challenges with our cookie presses, however!!! Whew! We mastered, switched to Plan B, and overcame! They taste great, certainly won't be around long... so we took Really FAST pictures! Here are our photos. The plates will probably really be empty before you read this! :^) First up are Helen's, gmabaking2; from Ft. Worth, TX
Next we have... Barb's, gmabaking.... from Colville, WA...
Barb decided Milk sounded better than the above tea... and made a glazed selection for variety...
and we finish with mine, gmagmabaking2.... with my morning coffee... This was an easy recipe, easy clean-up and a great start to our new semester!!!
thanks, we will see you all next week...
First of all, the cookies posted above look fabulous, and I wish I knew how to get those terrific shapes and textures. As you will see I don't. But these cookies are amazing - so light (figuratively speaking) and delicate. This challenge is upping my cookie making game.
I got halfway through - realized don't have sourcream. Substituted plain yogurt. Don't have a piping bag. Substituted plastic bag.
I hope I can find some innocent, unsuspecting soul to pass on this cookie press...I have no skill at all. As you can see on the small blue and white plate I scraped off 5 or 6, which weren't even the same size. Then I made cirles with the cake decorating part, sort of like wreaths--they melted nicely all into themselves! That did it, I just gently made dough balls with the remaining dough and after baking gave them a light glaze of powdered sugar mixed with lemon juice. ( 1 cup powdered sugar, one tablespoon melted butter and two tablespoons of lemon juice) The good news is that with such a good flavor it doesn't matter that I can't manage a cookie press! Will probably make this recipe again in that form with the glaze. Would be lovely to have with iced tea or lemonade on a warm summer evening.
so the cookie sticks when you lift the press. The idea is to be quick creating a suction between the cookie and the sheet so when you lift the press quickly it tears off the press. "It's all in the wrist!" sort of. Helps when the dough is just the right consistency. That takes some playing around.
One thing I do is count while pressing. Stand the press on the sheet (one) turn the screw (1/2 around?) and wait (2 and 3) and jerk up the press. Next! :)
That helps a lot to understand where I went wrong! The directions with the press say to chill the sheet, which I didn't-plus- I used parchment paper-so of course I had little or no suction to pull on the dough. The few that I did extract were only after I figured out to hold the parchment down in kind of a circle around the press. Needless to say, that required more dexterity than I have. By that time I was more than ready to give up.
I'm so glad to know what it was that I wasn't doing that caused the problem. This information will no doubt encourage other timid souls to bravely enter the world of the cookie press. I am going to try again soon myself.
And thank you Varda for your kind comment. Diane's cookies are the pretty stars, Helen suceeded in learning how to use the press and didn't give up like I did. Even my lumpy bumpy version tastes great and the plate of not so shapely attempts disappeared with the appearance of just one adult grandson.
I had to bake this morning ( nothing in the house to eat ) and this was just perfect. Easy to do, especially as I had left over marzipan from Christmas. I have recently inherited my late mother-in-law's Kenwood mixer (aged 51 ) and this was a first, after my husband had oiled it, and replace a few bits and pieces. So I feel these biscuits were a real sucess, as the picture shows. Thank you Kendra, and of course Stan and Norm.
I made the almond paste for the very first time and was not sure if it was the right consistency. The cookies came out great, very flavorful. The second batch came out too brown I think.
These cookies had a wonderful texture and tasted great, but I think if I make them again I will either add some almond extract to punch up the almond taste or some lemon zest for a lemon flavor. I pulled my cookie press out that I hadn’t used for years and just couldn’t get nice looking cookies with it. Actually, they were just a blob! So I put the dough in a pastry bag and piped them in circles. I really haven’t ever used my pastry bag, so it took a tray before I actually had decent looking cookies. I baked the cookies before I read Mini Oven’s comments, so when I try this recipe again, I’ll attempt the cookie press again on cold pans with no parchment paper. I thought the cookies were good plain, but they were even better with a bit of boysenberry jam on them.
Carlene
I am thinking that the next time I do these I will use a little lemon extract and add the jam like several did. Your's look yummy with the fresh jelly. They DO have a nice light texture. Seems like we all learned something with this particular challenge and thanks to Mini Oven... we have a plan for the next time. When we do the macaroons... I am just going to drop with a spoon rather than mess with the piping bag.
Happy Baking.
I am thinking that the next time I do these I will use a little lemon extract and add the jam like several did. Your's look yummy with the fresh jelly. They DO have a nice light texture. Seems like we all learned something with this particular challenge and thanks to Mini Oven... we have a plan for the next time. When we do the macaroons... I am just going to drop with a spoon rather than mess with the piping bag.
Happy Baking.