The Best Cookie Press Cookies I have tried

These are good cookies to give as a gift because they look like store bought but taste so much better.   They look like the Danish butter cookies you can buy in round or square tins.  I also remember Julia Child wrote advice to not "over finger" the food you make.  Don't make the food look like you over handled it.   The dough of these cookies is squeezed by you through a press so you don't have to over handle the dough by rolling it between your palms and etc.

A few years ago I signed up to bring butter cookies to a bridal shower so I tested a lot of cookie press recipes.  I said already that I like that cookie press cookies look like store bought cookies but taste homemade because they are.  One of the recipes I tested, was a Martha Stewart recipe and used corn meal as well as flour.  The cookies were grainy and gritty because of the cornmeal  My husband, Joe said the cookies tasted like I made them at the beach!

That made me laugh long and loud----aerobic laughing.  Maybe this kind of laughing gets a person's heart rate up and/or burns calories?

I found this recipe called Cream Cheese Bows in Martha Stewart's Cookie book.

3 cups flour
1 tsp. baking powder
3/4 tsp. salt
1 cup butter at room temp.
3 oz. cream cheese at room temp.
1 cup sugar
1 large egg
2 tsp. finely grated lemon zest
2 Tbsp. lemon juice
powdered sugar for sprinkling

Sift together the flour, baking powder and salt in a bowl.  Put the butter and cream cheese in the bowl of an electric mixer.  Beat on medium speed until creamy.  Mix in granulated sugar. Add egg, lemon zest, lemon juice and mix well.  Reduce the speed to low and mix in the dry ingredients.

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.  Place the dough in a cookie press.  You may need to chill the dough a little to get the right consistency to press the cookies.  Press the cookies onto a cookie sheet.  I decorate with sprinkles before I bake the cookies.  Bake the cookies until golden brown on the bottom about 12 minutes.

I am going to try to make these for St. Patrick's Day, March 17th and use yellow and blue food coloring mixed together to make them green.