Boomers Still Love This Old-School Baking Tool

If you ever wondered how your grandmother's Christmas butter cookies came out so beautiful and perfect, we're sorry to say it might not have been 100% magic baking skills with just her hands. She just might have had some help with a classic, old-school gadget she probably dug out from her cabinets only one time a year. Many Baby Boomers relied on their trusty cookie presses to create picture-perfect, evenly sized butter cookies that you and your cousins gobbled up the moment you walked in their door.

And, if we know grandparents, chances are they still have this totally cool tool hiding alongside their electric kitchen knives, hand-cranked flour sifters, and other tools Boomers still have in their kitchens. If so, it's completely worth rummaging for and trying it out for yourself. Cookie presses are designed to hold a tube of butter cookie dough. When you press a button or lever, a plunger presses down onto a metal disc adorned with cutout designs that press out specific shapes of dough. This creates small cookies that are all the same size. Common shapes include flowers, wreaths, and star shapes, but some kits come with holiday designs as well, like Christmas trees.

If sweet grandma does let you borrow her beloved cookie press (or if you decide to buy a new one of your own), you need to first be sure that you use the right kind of cookie dough when you use it for the first time. In fact, using the wrong kind of dough is one of many mistakes people make when using a cookie press. Look for a recipe for spritz cookies. The dough should include plenty of butter, but, unlike a sugar cookie or shortbread recipe, it also has eggs, which help the dough hold its shape and maintain those beautiful designs your cookie press will punch out. Chocolate chip cookie dough, 3-ingredient oatmeal cookies, or any kind of recipe with chunky ingredients will not work.

Now, this doesn't mean you can't use an array of flavors and colors. By all means, create lots of festive colors with liquid or gel food coloring. Decorate the baked cookies with icing, chocolate drizzle, sprinkles, and nuts. You can even flavor the dough itself using different extracts, citrus zest, or cocoa powder. But the biggest, most important thing about making your batch of cookie press cookies is that you must share them with grandma, who was always so generous with hers. If grandma is no longer with you, any Baby Boomer will probably appreciate your handiwork as well.