For many years as I was growing up, the Saturday after Thanksgiving was devoted to baking cookies: my mother, grandmother and I would convene in Mom’s kitchen to make several kinds of holiday treats.
(This, THIS, my friends, is what families should do in the post-Thanksgiving days … not hit the malls and pepper-spray each other in a fight for the latestcheapesthottest electronic gizmo. But I digress.)
Item 1-A on our to-do list for this annual cookie-baking session: almond wreaths (see a recipe for this Christmas cookie favorite here). These are a buttery spritz-type cookie sweetly decorated with bits of red and green candied cherry to resemble the bows on a wreath.
Essential to this cookie recipe: the cookie press. Both Mom and Grandma have well-used, decades-old Mirro cookie presses, whose corkscrew mechanism and generous capacity make easier work out of creating perfect circles of buttery dough. I, however, lacking my own vintage cookie press, made do with a succession of more modern versions, each one completely inferior to the older models. As with many kitchen tools, like the venerable Mirro Swirl Mixer, I find that older, simpler models totally outperform their newer iterations.
Now, I have my own vintage cookie press. Mom scored this copper-finished baby at an antique store. And as I dive into Christmas cookie baking in the coming weeks, I will put my cookie press through its paces.
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My mom has the same one! Her vanilla press cookies are awesome. And the whole fam gets in on the decorating with red and green I ing and various sprinkles. It’s my favorite part of the holidays. (Boo Black Friday! Yay press cookies!)
My wife has a Pampered Chef cookie press that she loves. A tip: She found that after working with the dough for a little bit, she often needs to pop it back in the freezer or it’s too “mushy” (that’s the technical term) to work with. It really helps!
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I had tried a few newer cookie presses – not great. I too scored a vintage press awhile back and love it.
Hi, Charlene — thanks for your comment! Funny how the vintage kitchen tools are so much better than their newer, “improved” cousins. I’m going to use my vintage cookie press this week to make Spritz cookies … stay tuned for the recipe!
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I have the exact same one, but most of the copper has worn off. I bought it right after my son was born. He’s 43 now, and I’m still using it!
Where can you find these, I had a plastic one and loved it.
Hi — I find the old copper cookie presses in antique malls or shops. You can find modern versions in cookware stores.