Nipple Cookies

Ok, so these are really spritz cookies with hershey kisses on top, but my mom makes these every year and an uncle of mine dubbed them nipple cookies so that is what my family has been calling them ever since.Can you blame us? they look like welll..you know....


Um...anyways, these are a really great holiday cookie, though they are labour intensive. The recipe makes a lot of little cookies, so make these for a crowd.
I think cookie presses are kind of a pain, and you could use a piping bag I guess, but the damn cookie press is traditional in my home. There is really a small margin of time where the dough is the perfect temperature and consistency to produce perfect little rosettes. You also need a slight hand, as too much pressure and too warm a room will inevitably produce cookie blobs that aren't really that nice.


You can vary the recipe by making half chocolate and putting white chocolate hugs or peppermint kisses on them instead , but I must admit I love the original vanilla shortbread topped with milk chocolate the best. The crisp buttery cookie base and rich milk chocolate just make these a wonderful cookie that almost always gets eaten within minutes of being set out...
And the name is all part of the holiday fun. Sort of.



Nipple cookies

Ingredients
• 2-1/4 cups all-purpose flour
• ¾ cups sugar
• ¼ teaspoon baking powder
• ½ teaspoon salt
• 1 cup butter
• 1 egg
• 1 teaspoon vanilla

1. Sift together flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt.
2. Blend in 1 cup butter, until mixture resembles coarse crumbs.
3. Break into a measuring cup 1 egg. If it does not measure ¼ cup, add water up to ¼ cup line.
4. Stir the egg and 1 teaspoon vanilla.
5. Beat well, then chill. Put dough through a cookie press (or piping bag) onto an ungreased cookie sheet. If the dough becomes too soft, re-chill it slightly. Bake for 8-10 minutes in a 350 degree F oven.
6. Let rest for 1 minute on cookie sheet. Remove to wire rack and top each cookie with a chocolate kiss while still warm. The chocolate will melt and adhere to the cookies.

For chocolate dough:
Melt two ounces unsweetened chocolate into dough.

For half vanilla and half chocolate dough:
Divide dough in half and mix 1 ounce melted unsweetened chocolate into half of the dough.

To marble dough:
Mix chocolate and vanilla dough to make a swirl and press through cookie press.

“festive nipple cookies”
Top chocolate cookies with white chocolate or candy-cane kisses.

Makes about 5 dozen cookies

Adapted From: The Joy of Cooking