I have tentatively named these cookies my Christmas Charm cookies.  The cookies’ small size, variety of shapes, and sparkly sprinkles remind me of the charms on a charm’s bracelet.  They’re fun, quirky, and delicate.  Squeeze a couple of these bright gems onto your tea saucer alongside a piping hot cup of peppermint tea, or pack them into a tiny decorative box for a charmingly sweet gift.

This has been my first foray into using a cookie press.  There was a little bit of a learning curve, but once I got it down it was ridiculously fun.  I made a simple vanilla and cognac spiked dough for this experimental batch of cookies, and two different glazes to decorate them with – a butter rum glaze and my favorite go-to lemon glaze.

Cookie Press Dough

Ingredients:

• 1 cup (2 sticks) Butter (unsalted and room temp)
• 1 cup Sugar
• 1 Egg
• 2 tsp Vanilla Extract
• 2 tbsp Cognac
• 1/2 tsp ground Cardamom
• 1/2 tsp Salt
• 2 1/2 cups Flour
• 2-4 tbsp Milk if the dough is too stiff

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 375 F (~190 C).
2. Cream together the butter and sugar.
3. Beat in the egg, vanilla, and cognac.
4. Beat in the cardamom and salt.
5. Beat in the flour.
6. Transfer dough into the cookie press, and use the press to shape the dough onto the un-greased cookie sheets.
7. Bake for about 10 minutes.

Butter Rum Sugar Glaze

Ingredients:

• 3 tbsp melted Butter
• 2-4 tbsp dark Rum
• 2-3 cups Powdered Sugar

Directions:

1. There are two ways of doing this, you can pour your rum into your already melted and slightly cooled butter, and not worry about burning off the alcohol content, or you can carefully flambé the rum in the melted butter in a small sauce pan on the stovetop.
2. Combine the powdered sugar with the liquids while they are still warm, until you obtain the desired consistency.  Keep in mind that the butter will continue to solidify as it cools.  If you frost your cookies while the butter is still warm you don’t have to worry about it to much, but if you are going to hold off on frosting you might want to keep the glaze fairly runny.

Lemon Glaze

Ingredients:

• juice from 1 Lemon
• ~1 cup Powdered Sugar

Directions:

1. Stir together until smooth.