Red Velvet Spritz Cookies -- The Cookie Season That Never Really Ends

The kitchen is in full winter mode. The oven at 375 (always 375), the crockpot on the counter, the pantry stocked with jars from last August's canning — the evidence of a woman who preserves summer against winter and loss against forgetting and food against everything.

The recipe this week: Christmas cookies. Standing at the stove, Marlene's wooden spoon in my hand (the cracked one, the one that will outlast us all), the recipe either from the card box or from my own expanding collection, both equally real, both equally mine. The kitchen holds all of it — the old recipes and the new ones, the teacher's food and the student's food, the grief and the joy and the cinnamon. All of it. Always.

The cookie season has ended and the soup season has settled in. The kitchen smells like broth and thyme and the slow simmer of food that takes hours and rewards the hours with warmth. Winter cooking is patient cooking. The patience is Marlene's gift. The cooking is mine.

Before the soup pot fully took over and the crockpot claimed the counter for good, I wanted one last proper cookie — something that felt like a celebration of the season rather than a farewell to it. Red Velvet Spritz Cookies felt exactly right: vivid and a little dramatic, the kind of thing Marlene would have approved of with a nod and maybe a small smile. I made them with her wooden spoon, because of course I did, and the kitchen smelled like butter and cocoa and the particular joy of ending a season on a high note.

Red Velvet Spritz Cookies

Prep Time: 20 min | Cook Time: 10 min | Total Time: 30 min | Servings: 48 cookies

Ingredients

• 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
• 3/4 cup granulated sugar
• 1 large egg
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 1 teaspoon red gel food coloring
• 2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1/4 teaspoon fine salt
• White nonpareils or sparkling sugar, for decorating

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven. Heat oven to 375°F. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper and set aside.
2. Cream the butter and sugar. In a large bowl, beat the softened butter and granulated sugar together with an electric mixer on medium-high speed until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes.
3. Add wet ingredients. Beat in the egg and vanilla extract until fully combined. Add the red gel food coloring and mix until the dough is a deep, even red throughout.
4. Mix in the dry ingredients. In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, cocoa powder, and salt. Gradually add the flour mixture to the butter mixture, mixing on low speed just until a smooth, cohesive dough forms. Do not overmix.
5. Load the cookie press. Fill a cookie press fitted with a star or flower disk. Press cookies out onto the prepared baking sheets, spacing them about 1 inch apart.
6. Decorate. Immediately top each cookie with a pinch of white nonpareils or sparkling sugar before baking.
7. Bake. Bake for 9–11 minutes, until the edges are just set and the bottoms are barely golden. Do not overbake — these are meant to be tender.
8. Cool. Let cookies cool on the baking sheet for 5 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely. Store in an airtight container at room temperature for up to one week.

Nutrition (per serving)

Calories: 72 | Protein: 1g | Fat: 4g | Carbs: 9g | Fiber: 0g | Sodium: 18mg