Shamrock Spritz Cookies

I love making spritz cookies, so it seemed like a great idea to make shamrock-shaped mint cookies for St. Patrick's Day.

I like eating them, of course. I mean, they're cookies. 

But it's fun (and fast) to pump them out of a cookie press into even rows. The barrel of the press makes it pretty easy to make sure you're leaving enough space for the cookies on the sheet, which is another great thing about using a press.

Spritz cookies bake quickly, so you go from "want cookies" to munching cookies in no time at all.

Spritz dough needs to be the right consistency to push it through a cookie press - it can't be too dense, or it won't go through the press, so this is one dough that you won't want to refrigerate before baking.

If you do absolutely need to make the dough ahead, let it warm up before you start shoving it through your cookie press, or it just won't work.

As much as I love buttery cookies, if you try to make these with all butter they'll spread a little too much and you'll lose a lot of design detail. These do spread a little so they might not be the best for super-detailed designs, but this recipe works well for basic shapes like flowers or for the shamrocks that I made.

When it comes to food coloring, I prefer the gel colors, since they're so concentrated. You can add a lot of color without adding much extra liquid to the recipe. If you use a liquid food coloring, you might need to add a bit of extra flour to compensate, or use just a few drops of the liquid color for a paler green cookie.

When it comes to mint flavoring, I had two different types on hand. One was peppermint (think of candy canes) and one was more like spearmint. Use whatever you have on hand, or what you like. I used the spearmint here.

Not a fan of mint? Omit it, or use a different flavor. I like almond-flavored spritz cookies, or you could go with citrus flavors or whatever else you like. There are a lot of flavors to choose from.

Shamrock Spritz Cookies
Makes about 10 dozen cookies, depending on size

3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, cold
1/2 cup shortening
1 cup sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon mint extract
Green food coloring, as needed
2 1/2 cups all purpose flour
Green decorating sugar (optional)

Heat your oven to 350 degrees and have several baking sheets standing by.

In the bowl of your stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment (or with an electric mixer in a large bowl) beat the butter until it is smooth. Add the shortening, sugar, and salt, and beat until light. Add the egg, flavorings, and food coloring and beat until well combined.

Add the flour in portions (to keep it from flying all over your kitchen when it hits the beater!) and beat until well combined.

Put the dough into your cookie press fitted with the die of your choice - you'll need to refill the press several times, so don't fret about that - and portion the dough onto your cookie sheets. I used shamrocks for St. Patrick's Day from the OXO spring disk set for their cookie press, but a leaf or flower would be nice for spring.

Sprinkle with colored sugar, if desired.

Bake at 350 degrees until the cookies are just barely browned on the edges, about 12 minutes.

Let them cool for 30 seconds or so on the baking sheet, then transfer to a rack to cool completely.

Gadgets: Swissmar Cheese Holder

The stainless steel cheese holder from Swissmar ($12) has one purpose - you guessed it - holding cheese.

The three short prongs poke into a hunk of cheese to grip it without stabbing so deep that the cheese would begin to crack or tear, so you can slice the cheese without using your hands to hold it. Meanwhile, the knob is big enough to hang onto easily.

Not a big deal to touch a hunk of cheese with your (clean) bare hands if you're making grilled cheese sandwiches for the family, right?

But if you're serving guests or have a cheese board set up where guests can slice cheese for self-serve, they might be happier not to have everyone's fingerprints all over every wheel and brick of cheese on the board.

This obviously isn't something everyone needs, but it's kind of cool-looking, doesn't take much storage space since it's only 2 1/4 inches tall, and turophiles will no doubt love it.

The product was supplied for the purpose of a review on Serious Eats; this was previously published on Serious Eats.

Pickled Mushrooms

I adore mushrooms, and that includes the pickled ones (or I guess you could call them marinated) that show up on olive bars in grocery stores. Every time I pass by those, I'm tempted to fill a container. Sometimes I do.

And then I'm tempted to snack on them every time I open the refrigerator.

Once in a while, I make my own. These are pretty great - not sweet, but not too hugely tart. Lemon and wine vinegar add their own personality. There's just enough red pepper to give them a little pop, but not so much that they've got bite.

Oh - and check out the cool green jar - these are the latest special edition canning jars from Ball.

Pickled Mushrooms

1 pound button mushrooms
1 small onion
2 cloves garlic
2 tablespoons sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon oregano
Pinch of red pepper flakes
3/4 cup wine vinegar
1 1/4 cups water
1 tablespoon lemon juice

Clean the mushrooms. If they're small, leave them whole. Otherwise halve, quarter, or slice them - whatever you choose.

Peel the onion, quarter, and cut into 1/4 inch slices.

Drop the garlic into a quart canning jar, then layer the mushrooms and onions in. You might have a few mushrooms left over - it depends on how well you pack.

Combine the sugar, salt, oregano, pepper flakes, vinegar, and water in a saucepan. Bring to a boil, stirring a bit to make sure the sugar and salt dissolve. Pour this over the mushrooms in the jar. Add the lemon juice.

Put the lid on the jar, and let it cool to room temperature, then refrigerate.

These are good as soon as they're cool, but they improve over the next few days.