**NOTE 11-8-19**
Our new streamlined website is finally up! Get creative this Holiday Season with our 28 unique sets of Cookie Press Disks & the new Impress! Cookie Press. Learn with our recipe tutorials & decorating blog, with expert advice & troubleshooting tips. The press & all of our disk sets are ready for purchase now! Happy Baking! ~Susie the Disk Designer www.impressbakeware.com
Our products are also available on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/s?k=Impress+Bakeware&ref=bl_dp_s_web_0
Read here about our new cookie press and 5 new disk sets: https://creativecookiepress.com/2019/11/05/were-back-meet-our-new-disks-and-press/
Original December 17, 2015 Post:
A jolly chuckling Santa, happy elves, and beautiful angels are iconic images of Christmas. So I had to make cookies to bring these images to the holiday table! These whimsical and pretty petite butter cookies will be something unique at your holiday gathering.
The Santa and angel cookies are made with cookie press disks from the “Christmas” disk collection. The elf is new this year! He is making his debut in the “Christmas Two” disk collection. They’re available on our website or on Amazon.
(*NOTE: As of our 2019 Re-Opening our new disks are made of a solid white material, but the designs are exactly the same, and press identically.)
My favorite, easiset-to-press recipe is the one I chose for these cookies: vanilla-honey spritz. It is a slight twist on my family’s basic vanilla spritz recipe. The honey makes for a very smooth dough to press, and it makes for sturdy cookies that travel well without breaking.
Let’s bake!
You’ll need a cookie press, un-greased cookies sheets, and the three disks.
Gather your ingredients.
Impress!™ Vanilla-Honey Spritz
1 1/2 cups (3 sticks) butter, softened (not melted)
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/3 cup honey
1 and 1/2 Tablespoons vanilla extract
1 egg
4 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
Preheat oven to 400°F.
In a large bowl, combine the flour, baking powder and salt and set aside.
Cream the butter well. I can’t stress enough how important the creaming process is to making perfect spritz cookies. I use an electric mixer and set it on “whip”. When my butter is delightfully fluffy, I know it’s creamed.
Add the sugar and cream it very well again. Add the honey, then vanilla and egg and I can’t say it enough, cream it again after each addition.
Add the flour mixture a little at a time, until completely combined. Spritz dough should be soft but not sticky. It has an almost crumbly texture that doesn’t stick to your fingers.
Load the dough into your press barrel, packing it in with the back of a spoon to avoid any air pockets forming. Place your disk and begin pressing. It’s OK if the first few come out misshapen. That happens to even the most experienced pressers. It sometimes takes a few cookies to build up a consistent pressure in the barrel to make the cookies come out uniformly. Just throw the bad ones back in the dough bowl to be re-pressed. Keep a steady pressing rhythm for best results.
Bake for 7-10 minutes until the edges begin to brown. All ovens are different, so check that first batch early- at 6 or 7 minutes to gauge your baking time. Let sit for just a minute or two then remove from the cookie sheet and cool on rack.
Definitely use a soft spritz dough for these cookies! The Santas, depending on your dough, can be just a little tricky. My honey-vanilla dough presses well, though I have to use more than one click on my press for the Santas. The angels came out perfectly with this recipe, as did the elves. If you’re having issues with the Santa cookies sticking, try refrigerating your cookie sheet for about 5 to 10 minutes before pressing. It helps the dough stick.
I did all of my decorating after these were baked. For the Santas and elves, I simply piped red decorating icing on for the hats and then smoothed the icing with a slightly wet finger to create a smooth finish. To make their beards, brows, moustache, and hat trim, I piped brown and white icing through star-shaped decorating tips.
I added candy eyes from The Baker’s Kitchen™ (link at bottom of page), but you could just pipe on dots of black, blue, or brown icing with a writing tip.
For the angels I used decorating icing, gel glitter icing and sanding sugars. I mixed and matched the icing types to create different effects.
To make the sanding sugars stick to the dresses or wings, I simply piped on icing, wet and smoothed it with a slightly damp finger, and turned the cookie upside-down into a dish of sanding sugars. You have to do this process first, as any other icing will sick to the sugars as well. Use a decorating brush to sweep away the excess sugars.
Once your sugars are on, ice the wings or dress, being careful to avoid touching the sugars. Pipe on your preferred icing and if needed, use a slightly wet finger to smooth it to the desired thickness and finish. You can use a toothpick to make the edges precise. Wet the tip of the toothpick if it’s sticking too much.
Angels! So pretty.
I also like the look of the angels with just the dresses decorated and the wings left plain. There is a simple elegance to the look that appeals to me. It’s also faster!
And that’s it!
Santas, angels, and elves to make something new with your cookie press this Christmas. These whimsical and pretty petite butter cookies will be something special at your holiday gathering, and will melt in everyone’s mouths faster than snowflakes on their tongues!
I wish you all a very Merry Christmas and Happy Baking,
~Susie
Disk Designer/Co-Owner at Impress! Bakeware, LLC
“Get creative with your cookie press!”
Follow us on Facebook! https://www.facebook.com/impressbakeware/
The Christmas and Christmas Two Disk Sets:
https://www.impressbakeware.com/products/christmas-disks
https://www.impressbakeware.com/products/christmas-two-8-disk-set-for-cookie-presses
**NOTE 11-8-19**
Our new streamlined website is finally up! Get creative this Holiday Season with our 28 unique sets of Cookie Press Disks & the new Impress! Cookie Press. Learn with our recipe tutorials & decorating blog, with expert advice & troubleshooting tips. The press & 12 other disk sets are ready for purchase now, & more will be available as they come in stock! Happy Baking! ~Susie the Disk Designer www.impressbakeware.com
Our products are also available on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/s?k=Impress+Bakeware&ref=bl_dp_s_web_0
Read here about our new cookie press and 5 new disk sets: https://creativecookiepress.com/2019/11/05/were-back-meet-our-new-disks-and-press/
creative cookie press 
I was wondering what cookie press you use with these?
Thanks! Angie madangel67@att.net
Sent from my iPad
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Hi Angie! Thanks for stopping by. I have a dozen different presses, but for this blog I used the OXO Good Grips press. I probably use that and my Norpro the most. Feel free to ask me any other cookie press or disk questions. I’m always happy to help. ~Susie
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how do you get the candy eyes to stay on the cookies? If using icing, won’t they eyes eventually fall off?
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Hi Sarah! Thanks for stopping by. I do use a tiny bit of icing to stick the eyes to the cookies. I haven’t had too many problems with the eyes falling off. It only seems to happen if I didn’t use enough icing or if the icing itself was already getting dry and losing its stickiness. If you use enough nicely sticky icing and let them “set”, the eyes should stick. Try piping the icing in a dot where you want to place the eye. Then use your fingers or tweezers to set the eye down and press gently. If you’re not piping icing (i.e. with a decorating bag and tip) hold the eye with fingers or tweezers and touch the back of it to a small lob of icing, then set in place. Let me know how it goes- I’m always happy to help troubleshoot. 🙂 Happy baking! ~Susie.
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I am gettting ready to use the angel and elf discs and would love to get a shiny icing finish that dries shiny (wet icing won’t work for mailing cookies). Do you use something besides a confectioners sugar icing. I was thinking that a bit of corn syrup might make it shiny. Thanks for your help!
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Hi! On the Angels for this post I used a store-bought gel glitter icing that does dry hard if you leave it overnight. It is very shiny and I was pleased with the look and durability. I’ve never used a corn syrup icing or glaze, but I hear they can be pretty shiny. The only other glaze I use is a very clear, thin mix of 1 cup confectioner’s sugar with 2 or 3 tablespoons of water. It dries very hard! Good luck and share any insights you may have as you bake. Thanks for stopping by & happy baking! ~Susie
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