Citrus Spritz Cookies (Coconut-Lime, Lemon, and Orange)

The other day my friend Wendy and I went Thrift Store shopping.  I found this vintage Mirro Cookie Press.  My mom, along with every one else's mom, had one of these back in the 1950's.  What fun memories.  It looked to have all the parts so I pulled out my $1.50 and took it home with me.

 I got wondering, whatever happened to the one my mom used to have?  It seems like I remember seeing it up on the top shelf of my panty.  Yep, there it is still in the box.  The recipe booklet was still there as well.  I played around a little and came up with this recipe for citrus cookies.  You will need the following ingredients:

1 1/2 cups butter (3 sticks) softened
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla
2 Tblsp cream or milk
1 tsp baking powder
2 cups flour plus more later on
1 Lemon, 2 Limes, 1 Orange
1/2 tsp coconut extract
1/2 tsp lemon extract
food coloring
sugar crystals for decorating if you like




Cream butter and sugar until fluffy.

Add the egg, cream, and vanilla and beat.

Add the baking powder and 2 cups of flour and mix well.  Divide dough evenly between 3 bowls. One for lemon cookies, one for coconut-lime, and one for orange.
Zest and juice the lemon, limes, and orange separately.  Measure 1 packed tsp of zest and 2 Tblsp juice into each appropriate bowl.  Add the food coloring, yellow, orange, or green.  In the lemon bowl add 1/2 tsp lemon extract.  In the lime bowl add 1/2 tsp coconut extract.  In the orange bowl add 1 more tsp orange zest.  Add 3/4 cup additional flour to each bowl and mix by hand.  The dough will be pretty soft but should not be gooey. 

Place the dough inside the cookie press.  Press cookies onto an ungreased baking sheet about 1" apart.  This was a little tricky so it took me a few tries before I figured out how much dough to twist out.  Luckily the recipe makes quite a few cookies so it's ok if you mess up a few. 

Bake at 375 degrees for 7-8 minutes until very lightly browned on bottom and edges.  Normally I wouldn't let my cookies brown, but if you don't these will fall apart too easily.  Cool on a wire rack before removing from the baking sheet.

I think the shapes turned out really cute.  Unfortunately I had a food coloring mishap.  I wanted to use my Neon food colors.  I was out of the green so I had to just use regular green.  They are pretty but not bright like I wanted them.  The yellow also turned out pretty but not bright.  Maybe I didn't use enough coloring, but I didn't want to make the dough too sticky by adding too much liquid.  Ok, I didn't have orange so I mixed the neon yellow with some of my regular red.  Yuck,  not pretty at all.  Oh wait, I see the neon pink right there in the box.  So happily I squirt in a few drops.  Oh no, it's not pink, it's purple, eeew that is not good at all.  As you can see, my orange flowers are not a  pretty color.  Next time I think I'll use my paste cake decorating colors instead.    Cute and Yummy!  Great for a Spring party, brunch, or tea and so fun to make.