Press Cookies-Redone!

For Christmas this year my Mother-in-Law gave her daughter and me both a cookie press and her coveted press cookie recipe.  I waited a few months for the Christmas cookie surplus to run dry and decided to attempt these cookies.  Sometimes the best treat is a super simple butter cookie.  Unfortunately, 2 cookies into my experiment, my brand new cookie press broke.  My husband has promised to attempt a repair, but six months down the road, I'm still press-less.  Though, to be fair, it's sitting on his work bench behind a broken VCR (yes, I said VCR and spell check doesn't even recognize that anymore!) and a tub of Legos.  That said, it's fairly obvious that he's never made it past the Legos.  Back to my unfortunate cookie situation.  I, of course, had a double batch of dough and no press.  Wait, you mean there are people out there who make a single batch of a recipe?  Really?  I decided to make two variations of the cookies and see how it went.  First variation, roll cookies into balls, and press with a fork (like a peanut butter cookie) and bake.  Second variation, roll into balls, make a divot with your thumb and place 3 chocolate chips inside.  Mold dough to cover chips.  Imagine my surprise when both variations came out great (with out the hassle of cleaning the cookie press tube).  Never one to follow the less is more approach, I drizzled milk chocolate over the top and pretended that I never intended to make pressed cookies!

Press Cookies

1 Cup sugar

1/2 Cup shortening

1/2 Cup butter

2 eggs

1 Tbl milk

2 3/4 Cup flour

1/2 tsp salt

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

1 tsp vanilla

Preheat oven to 350°.  Mix sugar, butter, and shortening.  Add the eggs, milk, and vanilla.  Beat with an electric mixer until light and fluffy.  Combine dry ingredients with a whisk in a separate bowl and then add to the wet mixture.  Either form into ball or press  and bake for 10-12 minutes until the edges are a very light golden brown.