Baking with the Schimeks
Dec 12, 12:28 PM CST
The Lincoln Journal Star featured several Nebraska dignitaries and their favorite Christmas cookie recipies this morning. Included was our own Senator DiAnna Schimek and her husband Herb, who bake their famous Spritz cookies each year.
This time of year you’ll likely find state Sen. DiAnna Schimek and her husband, Herb, doing their annual spritzing.
No, they’re not securing their coiffures but are hard at work in the kitchen, making their favorite Christmas cookies.
They’re almond-flavored spritz, melt-in-your mouth baked goodies made with a cookie press.
“My bridge club has a cookie exchange every year, and I always take them,” the senator said. They’re a a big hit, because of their pretty shapes and colors and buttery flavor.
Two secrets to perfect spritz are using real butter rather than margarine and almond extract rather than artificial almond flavoring, she said. Another key is not having the dough too sticky, so they come out of the press in well-formed shapes.
Herb Schimek likes to use the cookie press, which consists of a metal cylinder and plunger, with several interchangeable grids with patterns, such as Christmas trees, wreaths and stars. It takes practice to get them to come out right, and after making them for several years, he’s an expert.
Click here to read the whole story.
The Schimek’s Recipe:
Cookie-press Spritz
1 cup butter
½ cup sugar
2¼ cups flour (you might add up to 1/8 cup more)
½ teaspoon salt
1 egg1 teaspoon almond extract or vanilla
Heat oven to 400 degrees. Cream butter and eggs. Blend in the remaining ingredients. Add extra flour if dough is too soft. Fill cooke press with ¼ of the dough and form desired shapes on cookie sheet. Bake 6-9 minutes until set but not brown. (You may add food coloring to batter and sprinkle with colored sugars before baking, if desired). Makes 5 dozen cookies.
— Sen. DiAnna Schimek
– by Eric Fought | Send this to a friend
