My daughter Anne's favorite cookie is chocolate chip. There is no doubt about that. But Spritz Cookies run a close second. She seems to crave them around Christmas time. Every year I make a variety of candies to give as gifts during the holidays, but I must bake a batch of Sprtiz just for Anne. It is not Christmas unless she has her special cookies.

Do you have cookie memories? Perhaps your Mamaw made cookies just for you. When you think about it, you can almost smell the cookies baking as you entered her kitchen. It takes you back to your childhood before the world got to you. If you have her recipe, stirring up a batch will take you back in time when climbing up on a chair at her kitchen table, cookie in hand, you dunked it in a glass of cold milk. Yes, memories are made of that. Anne doesn't make the Spritz Cookies, I do. There will come a day when she will have to do the job. A grandchild will climb up at her table and be building memories, too.

SPRITZ COOKIES
1 cup butter, softened (not margarine)
1/2 cup sugar
1 egg
1/2 teaspoon almond extract
2 1/2 cups plain flour
Food coloring or sprinkles

With hand mixer, beat together butter, sugar, egg and almond extract until light and fluffy. Beat in flour by hand. Divide dough into three pieces. You can add a few drops of paste food coloring to two of the three pieces of dough. Leave one piece plain. Put desired design plate on cookie press. Fill cookie press with dough. I like to make a rope of two colored pieces and one plain piece of dough. It is so pretty with the different colored patterns. Press out onto cold ungreased baking sheets. Decorate with colored sugars or sprinkles if desired. Bake at 350 F. for 8 to 10 minutes. Just bake until set, not browned. I don't know how many cookies this recipe makes. Anne starts eating them as soon as they cool a little bit.