by Kelly J. Larson

Butterfly shaped spritz cookies with M&M candy wings make such beautiful, buttery treats.  The cheerful, fluttering icon can brighten springtime events including baby showers, bridal showers, New Beginnings, Mother’s Day and more. I’m a huge fan of M&M cookies because of the multitude of options that add the right festive pop of color to your event.

Using my classic shortbread spritz dough recipe in a cookie press, you can easily squeeze out uniform butterflies then before baking, add plain or peanut M&Ms to the wings. Some of the M&Ms crack in the oven while baking, which helps to transform the wing detail.  There’s no need to refrigerate the cookie dough after you make it. In fact, it will be too firm if you do.

Classic Spritz Cookies

• 1 cup butter, softened to room temperature
• 2/3 cup sugar
• 1 egg
• 1/2 teaspoon almond extract
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2-1/2 cups flour
• assorted M&Ms

Preheat oven to 375 F degrees. Mix butter and sugar together until creamy, then add the remaining ingredients together a stand mixer until well mixed. Spoon dough into cookie press and add attachment, with the number side facing the top or outward. Squeeze 1 to 2 clicks of dough only a metal cookie sheet in a quick rhythm.  If you do it too slowly, it might get stuck.  For any cookies that don’t have the desired shape, simply scrape it off the cookie sheet and back to the mixing bowl and refill the press again with extra dough. Add four M&Ms to each butterfly. Bake for about 7 minutes, just before they bottoms turn brown.

For many years, I have used the old style Pampered Chef cookie press.  Here is a cookie press that is almost identical in design to mine, and it includes a butterfly disc.

Makes approximately 3 dozen cookies.