INGREDIENTS
- 1 cup unsalted butter, room temperature (226g)
- 3/4 cup granulated sugar (150g)
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1 large egg
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 tsp almond extract
- 2 1/4 cups all purpose flour (293g)
DIRECTIONS
- Preheat oven to 350F.
- Cream butter, salt, and sugar together in a stand mixer or with an electric whisk. Add the egg, almond extract, and vanilla until combined then scrape down the bowl.
- If tinting the dough you should mix the food coloring in now then add the flour and mix until combined.
- Fill your cookie press and choose a pattern then press cookies onto an unlined and ungreased baking sheet.
- You can decorate with sprinkles before or after baking see notes. Bake at 350F for about 8 minutes or until the bottoms are JUST starting to turn golden.
NOTES
- Sprinkles can bleed color and even melt in the oven. You can decorate the cookies after baking by brushing with corn syrup or icing then adding sprinkles, nonpareils, etc.
- Use an unlined and ungreased cookie sheet/tray or the cookies won't stick to the tray as you are pressing them out.
- Add the food coloring a little at a time until you reach the desired color, you can't take it away once it's added.
- I find that gel food coloring works best so you don't change the consistency of the dough too much before pressing through the cookie press.
- If you want to decorate these cookies with icing then follow this super easy sugar cookie icing recipe and mix it to a slightly thinner consistency.
- If you decide to use icing make sure the cookies are cooled completely before decorating them and don't add any sprinkles before baking.
- The cookies bake quickly so keep an eye on them, you don't want them to brown they should just be starting to turn ever so slightly golden at the edges.
- Allow the cookies to firm up for a few minutes after baking before moving to a cooling rack to cool completely.