Pepparkakor Spritz

 

And one more cookie recipe!  We tried this recipe in a previous year (2015) and I mentioned it in passing, but never blogged about it.  This cookie recipe is one of the many excellent ones in this classic baking book from the 1950s -- Best Loved Foods of Christmas -- the very one that came out every Christmas of my childhood as my mother began to plan her kitchen gifts.

I love my regular Pepparkakor recipe (for cutout cookies) 

and am probably not ever going to replace it with these pressed ones.  My regular recipe calls for the rind and juice of an orange, and I love that flavor component.  But the taste is very similar and very festive. My hubby enjoyed trying different shapes with the cookie press for this one, and he sprinkled them with red sugar.  

This is a delicious and somewhat different spritz variation!

A new cookie recipe this year -- Coffee Maple Spritz

  

Every year we like to try a new cookie recipe or two.  This year we tried two.  And I think both are "keeper" recipes.

These Coffee Maple Spritz are from Taste of Home, a recipe submitted by Deirdre Cox.  

The only change I made in the recipe was to use all butter (3/4 cup) rather than 1/2 cup butter and 1/4 cup shortening.  I just think all butter works better in pressed cookie recipes.

The recipe gets its coffee flavor from espresso powder and the maple flavor is from maple extract.  It's a very nice flavor and my coffee-loving granddaughter was surprised how much coffee flavor came through in the cookies.  I am anxious to hear how our Nevada family likes these, as most of them enjoy coffee flavor in ice cream.

My hubby had fun with the cookie press (he loves how it produces many different shaped cookies so quickly and easily) and produced a number of delicious cookies with a delightful coffee maple taste!