Natalie and I TRIED to make cookies with my new Pampered Chef Cookie Press tonight. It was a flop and I ended up dumping everything. It's a new press, which my sister gave to me. This was the first time I've tried using it. It wouldn't do anything. I would get the dough in, press it down, it would click, and a few pieces of dough would come out of the pattern slots before it just stopped moving at all. I used the Spritz Cookie recipe that came with the press.

I'm clueless on this cookie press. I feel like I'm following the directions. DH helped and neither of us could get it. Am I an idiot or what? If anyone has any experience I'd appreciate it.

As a result, if possible I'd like for us to make some cut out cookies tomorrow. I made some several years ago, but don't even have a recipe anymore. We're just going to use the plastic cookie cutters that we have. If you have a good recipe, could you please post it? I just don't have any. I must have used my mom's before.

TIA!!

By Dawnk777 on Friday, December 22, 2006 - 09:35 pm:

Spritz Cookies

1-1/2 cups butter
1 cup granulated sugar
1 egg
2 tablespoons milk
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 teaspoon almond extract
4 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon bakin powder

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Thoroughly cream butter and sugar. Add egg, milk, vanilla and almond extract; beat well. Stir together flour and baking powder; gradually add to creamed mixture, mixing to a smooth dough. Do not chill. Place dough into cookie press and press cookies onto ungrased cookie sheet.

Bake at 400 degrees 6 to 8 minutes; remove cookies from cookie sheet; cool on rack.

Makes 6 dozen cookies

From Wilton Cookie Press box

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Easy Roll Sugar Cookies

1 cup butter
1 cup sugar
2 egg yolks
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 cups sifted all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/3 cup milk

Cream butter; add sugar gradually. Mix in egg yolks and vanilla. Blend in sifted dry ingredients and milk; chill.

Roll 1/8 inch thick on floured surface; cut with cookie cutters. Place on grased cookie sheets. Decorate before baking or frost when cool. Bake at 350 degrees 8 to 10 minutes. Makes about 5 dozen, depending on size.

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With my Christmas cookies, I always use REAL butter. The cut-out cookies just don't work with margarine. The dough doesn't get hard enough to roll out decently and then come off the cutting board decently.

I just think real-butter spritz cookies taste better, too. If I just used margarine, I would be able to tell.

With the cut

By Sandysmom on Friday, December 22, 2006 - 09:58 pm:

I like Pampered Chef items, but their cookie press just did not work for me. The plastic ring broke and the dough was not coming out right. I actually bought a Williams Sonoma cookie press. I got it on sale for $23.50. I absolutely LOVE it. It's so sturdy and I rarely have any trouble getting the dough to press out. One thing you could try is to hold the press down on the cookie sheet and double-press it. Do this a few times and then you should be able to single-press. You'll have a few fat cookies but that just means they're extra good.

Also, ditto Dawn on using real butter. Using margarine in cookie recipes have never worked for me. Good luck!

By Mom2three1968 on Friday, December 22, 2006 - 10:48 pm:

Deanna,

Betty Crocker's sugar cookie mix is what I use and it works really well for cut out cookies, that is what we used for our cookies this year and they turned out great!!

By Imamommyx4 on Friday, December 22, 2006 - 11:07 pm:

I got a Pampered Chef cookie press also and hated it. I called the company and got some expert lady that was very nice. She said that you had to use real butter or "margarine for baking" for it to work right. I think I was just using some sort of margarine that did not say "for baking" on it. But I had such a frustrating experience with it, I never tried again and gave it away to somebody. I know my mom had an old cookie press that we use to use all the time when I was a kid and we never had problems. But if the butter really was the issue, we always used real butter when I was a kid.

I may try another brand of cookie press some day, but right now dd likes to use cookie cutters so I'm good for the time being.

By Andi on Saturday, December 23, 2006 - 01:15 am:

Here is the Surgar Cookie Recipe I made with my Pre-K class and I make it with Dylan and Taylor. Infact we are making it tomorrow:

Sugar Cookies:
1 t b. powder
1/2 t b. soda
1/2 t salt
1/2 t nutmeg

Cream: 1 cup of butter and 1 1/2 cups of sugar

Add: 1 egg, 1/2 cup of sour cream and 1 t. vanilla

Blend in dry ingredients and CHILL dough.

Roll and cut

Bake at 375 for 8-10 minutes.

By Reds9298 on Saturday, December 23, 2006 - 08:52 am:

Thank you ladies! I always use real butter when baking, too. I personally think the PChef press is a joke! I tried double-pressing it, too. Oh well. Maybe I'll check out the one you mentioned Sandy, for next year.

Andi - I think your recipe might be the same as my mom's. She's out of town right now. I found my Christmas cookie cutters lastnight, so we'll be making them today, too!

Thank you everyone! I'm printing all of your recipes.

By Dawnk777 on Saturday, December 23, 2006 - 09:00 am:

Wilton makes great cookie presses, too. I think that's what I have.

By Jjandmom on Sunday, December 24, 2006 - 06:38 am:

Andi I was wondering if there is any flour in the recipe , I don't see any used .Sorry. I like trying different cookies recipes and was just wondering.