Trying out the cookie gun

For last Christmas I got a cookie gun/icing syringe. Up until today I had only used it for icing. But, feeling very extravagant I decided to make a batch of lemon cookies using it. I ended up making over 80 quite small cookies in different shapes. The shapes I used this time were a flower, a wreath, a bat and a tree.

The awesome Cookie Gun!

The recipe used was just one for plain vanilla dough that had come with the gun, but I altered it slightly by adding lemon and using salted butter. The recipe called for '2 sticks of butter' and being in Australia where we don't buy butter by the stick, I turned to my best friend in the form of the internet! There I discovered that one stick of butter is about 113g. For this recipe I rounded up from the 226g it asked for and added in 230g instead.
The cookies have a shortbread like flavor and texture with a hint of lemon. Being not to sweet, they are really good and I am pleased with the out come!
I had to employ the help of my mother to help hold down the baking paper while I manned the gun because the dough had trouble sticking to the tray. I had to add more milk to the recipe to get the dough sticky enough, but emerged victorious! Because the gun can't cut the dough off, the cookie has to stick to the paper, which causes some issues!
Some of the shapes work better than others. The tree, wreath and flower turned out really well, while the bat is a bit more of a blob. I also tried to use the butterfly shape but for some reason the dough wouldn't stick, so next time when I make a different type of cookie I will have another shot at using that shape.
I had heaps of fun using my cookie gun for the first time and look forward to using it to make lots of themed cookies in the future!

The Flowers + Wreaths

Bats, Wreaths, Trees and Circles

Lemon Cookies
Ingredients- 
230g salted butter, softened
1 cup granulated sugar
1 egg
2 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tbsp milk
The zest from 2 lemons
The juice from 1 lemon


Method-
Preheat oven to 190 C (375 F)

1. Combine the butter and sugar in a large bowl. Using an electric mixer set on medium speed, beat until light and fluffy .
2. Beat in the egg and vanilla extract.
3. Using a spoon, stir in the lemon zest and then the flour.
4. Stir through lemon juice, then enough milk so the dough is firm but sticky.
5. Either load into cookie gun or roll into small balls before flattening them out so that they are about 7mm thick
6. Bake for 10-15 minutes or until golden brown.
7. Enjoy!