Grandma'a Cookie Press

By mid-December we had an actual social calendar for the first time in years. Thanks to pre-school, some awesome kids and moms we had birthday parties, holiday parties, Ben's school Christmas Program, and more... I made some cookies to bring to several different places long before I made the cookies for Christmas.
I always love to pull out my Grandma Helena's cookie press. She gave this to me a few years ago, and I've since fallen in love with the recipes and shapes it makes.

I still have the original box the cookie press came in, oddly enough, maufactured right here in Wisconsin.

Here's the recipe book.

Lots of manual turning and filling, but I find the cookies worth it.

Besides, I have the modern convenience of the Kitchen Aid mixer to do the real dirty work. With Fibromyalgia I can't mix without a great deal of pain. This mixer is such a Godsend.

The spices in the Molasses Spice cookies looked so pretty:

First time I've ever made anything with real Molasses. I didn't expect it to smell like it does, so intense, and earthy. Not as sweet as I expected.

These are the Christmas tree-shaped cookies I made before the molasses spice cookies. the recipe I followed for these beauties is an Anise Tea Cookie recipe.

I didn't take any pictures of the molasses spice cookies, but they were a snowflake shape (no gingerbread man shapes with this press). Both cookies were yummy in their own right.