Vanilla-Cardamom Orange Spritz Cookies

These pretty little cookies are completely easy to make. Lightly crispy, sweet vanilla cookies made a little more exciting by orange and spice.

Have you ever used a cookie press before? It was one of those things I put on my Amazon wish list before Christmas, not sure if I'd ever really use it, but I'm happy to say it's really easy to use, clean, and make a variety of pretty little cookies. There are a few recipes that come with the cookie press kit, so I decided to keep things simple on my first go of it and stick pretty close to the recipes- this is an orange, veganized version of the standard Vanilla Spritz Cookie.

Vanilla-Cardamom Orange Cookies (Vegan Vanilla Orange Spritz Cookies)
Makes about 2 dozen small cookies using a cookie press
Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup Earth Balance (you can decrease to 1/4 cup +2 Tbsp, and add 2 Tbsp mashed banana if desired)
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1/2 egg replacer (I used Bob's: 1.5 tsp Bob's egg replacer powder and 1 Tbsp + 1.5 tsp water)
• 1 and 1/4 tsp vanilla extract
• 1/4 tsp ground cardamom
• 1/4 tsp cinnamon
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1 and 1/4 cup flour
• zest of 1/2 orange plus small squeeze of juice

Instructions:

1. Preheat oven to 375F.
2. Place butter & sugar in bowl and use mixed to beat until fluffy. 
3. Mix in the egg replacer (pre-mixed), extracts, spices, and salt. 
4. Stir in the flour with a spoon. Add in the orange zest last, and just a tiny squeeze of fresh orange (you don't want to make the dough too liquidy, especially if using a cookie press).
5. Roll the dough into a tube-shape and place in the cookie press. Press onto a cool, clean, ungreased cookie sheet (the cookies don't spread while baking, so you don't need to leave much room between them).
6. Bake until golden, about 9-10 minutes. Transfer to wire rack to cool.

I was kind of surprised by how much I like these cookies- usually I prefer a soft or chewy cookie over a more buttery, crunchier cookie, but these were still fairly light tasting, and the orange paired so well with the spices.

Some notes on using the cookie press: the kit I got came with detailed instructions, including how to avoid and/or troubleshoot sticky dough. Because of this, I wouldn't recommend trying out all types of dough in the cookie press- it really does need to be fairy dense, non-sticky dough to work out properly. Also, make sure you use a cold cookie sheet when using a cookie press- the dough won't stick when you are using one right from the oven after taking off the last batch.

Glad to have this pretty little cookie maker in my kitchen now!