I first made these at a friend’s house when we were in junior high school 147 years ago, but I don’t remember which cookbook this recipe came from. I do not like peanut butter cookies, but I love these, and I’ve never seen anyone not like them. I’ve made them with only real peanut butter, so don’t know what they’d taste like with brown-flavored shortening Skippy or Jif.
Cream together sugars, shortening, eggs, peanut butter, and vanilla.
Add dry ingredients and mix until combined.
Roll into balls, place on cookie sheet, and smoosh with a floured fork or meat pounder. The meat pounder makes a more interesting and somewhat festive design.
Bake at 350° for 8 – 12 minutes. Don't overbake; the cookies should be barely tan on the bottoms.
My all-time favorite from one of my grandmas. No one makes them anymore because the dough is so sticky and messy to work with, but they are worth it. If you use enough flour (or powdered sugar) on the board to make them not sticky, it makes the cookies too tough and dry.
A method I haven’t tried is to roll out the dough on parchment paper, cut out shapes, remove the excess dough, then transfer the parchment paper to a cookie sheet and bake according to the directions.
Grandma’s recipe called for all shortening; I’ve substituted a little butter for flavor. I’ve made them with half butter, half shortening, but that’s not even close to the sour cream cookies I remember.
1/2teaspoonnutmegI've accidentally left this out: don't make that mistake
Instructions
Cream together shortening, sugar, and eggs. Beat until fluffy.
Stir in sour cream.
Stir in remaining ingredients.
Chill overnight.
Roll out between wax paper and just enough flour or powdered sugar to make dough workable (too much and the cookies will be dry and tasteless).
Keep extra dough chilled while rolling out (helps to make it less sticky).
Cut out with cookie cutters.
Place cut-out cookies top down in a plate of colored sugar and press so the sugar coats the entire surface. Good luck with this step.
Place on greased or parchment-lined cookie sheets. If you don't, you'll have made a lovely pile of cookie crumbs by the time you chip them off the pan.
Bake at 375° for 8 – 10 minutes until barely golden.
Let cool about 1 minute before removing from pan.
Because the dough is so sticky and I’m so lazy, this is how I shape the cookies:
Refrigerate the dough overnight (at least several hours)
Roll out into a rectangle less than 1/4″ thick
Sprinkle colored sugar (a lot) over the entire surface
Roll up into a log (jelly-roll style)
Refrigerate again for a few hours
Slice log into rounds about 1/4″ thick
Place about 1-1/2″ apart on parchment-lined baking sheet
One of my grandma’s recipes. Delicate little puffs of nothing, these are the fastest-disappearing Christmas cookies in our house. The recipe calls for shortening, but it occurred to me recently that that might be a depression-era convention because every Spritz recipe I’ve ever seen uses butter. I use about 1/2 shortening and 1/2 butter, with the heavy half leaning toward the shortening. Too much butter and the cookies end up dry and coarse.
Cream together shortening, sugar, egg, and almond extract.
Stir in flour and salt.
Chill overnight (or at least a few hours), then use a cookie press to make shapes.
Sprinkle colored sugar on each cookie.
Bake at 375° on an ungreased cookie sheet 8 – 12 minutes until barely golden.
Recipe Notes
You'll have to experiment with how well-chilled the dough is vs. how well your cookie press can handle it. If you know of a cookie press that can handle stiff dough without stripping out, please let me know. I've looked for years and have had no luck. Thus, any cookie press I buy tends to be disposable.
