Is your cookie press stashed away until the holidays? Pull that baby out and make these adorable, portable and delicious cookies for Valentine's Day, a girl's baby shower or birthday, or any day.

Our classic spritz cookies are flavored with strawberry jam and dipped in 72 percent cacao chocolate for a not-too-sweet adult treat. But you can bump up the sugar content and use milk or semi-sweet chocolate for your little ones. The jam lends a slight pink to the dough. We added a baby pea-size amount of burgundy gel food coloring to get the pink in the photos.

This recipe, adapted from one from Bake, Love, Give makes 4 dozen cookies, depending on how hard you press. We didn't count as we ate a bunch of the "ugly" ones. You'll probably end up with more!

These are a great choice if you want to ship a gift to someone, as they are still tasty after a week if you keep them tightly sealed. To extend their life, you can also store in the fridge for an extra few days or the freezer for up to a month.

1. Heat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C).
2. Line two baking sheets with parchment or silicone liners.
3. In a medium bowl, whisk together flour with salt and baking powder. Set aside.
4. In your stand mixer, fitted with SideSwipe or flat beater: cream together softened butter and sugar on medium speed until well combined and fluffy. 
5. Add egg and vanilla. Mix on medium speed until well incorporated.
6. Add the dry ingredients all at once. Mix on lowest speed until moistened. Then increase mixer speed to medium-low just until combined.
7. Add strawberry jam and optional food color. Mix on low until color is distributed throughout the dough.
8. Load into cookie press fitted with the heart shaped disk.
9. Push dough through the cookie press onto lined cookie sheets. It takes a little practice to master the perfect technique. See NOTE below for tips on using a cookie press.
10. Bake at 375 degrees F (190 degrees C) for 8-10 minutes or until very light brown and set.
11. In a deep, narrow bowl, microwave chocolate/melting wafers in 30 second intervals, stirring until smooth. You can also use a double boiler on your stove, as we did, which we like better for controlling the heat.
12. Dip half of each cookie in melted chocolate and transfer to parchment or wax paper to set.
13. Store in an airtight container for up to one week.

NOTE:  Remember that the cookies will stick to the paper/silicone liner, so you should hold the press vertically, touch the rim to the pan, press quickly and then lift vertically for the best shape. You can place them fairly close together - about 1-2 inches between - as they do not expand very much.

These buttery, jammy, crunchy and crumbly bars are one of the easiest recipes we've featured here. You probably already have the ingredients in your kitchen...so why don't you make some today?

Perfect for a casual dessert, afternoon snack or dare we say breakfast, these simple to make bars can use any kind of jam you have on hand. We used a combination of peach and strawberry so we could clean out our jars :). Feel free to do the same or even make your own jam if you're so inclined.

A stand mixer is not required for this recipe, but we found it was helpful in getting all the ingredients incorporated. Plus, we try to make all our recipes using SideSwipe to show how well it works!

This recipe, which can easily be made gluten-free, is from Brian Hart Hoffman's Bake from Scratch, volume 1. Yields about 16 square servings. (our photos picture 1/9 size servings)
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Never heard of them? We tried our first lamington in Australia, where they are a iconic, beloved dessert of kids and adults alike. They're on every grocery store shelf and a favorite at school bake sales. Lamingtons are sponge cake surrounded by a soft chocolate glaze and rolled in coconut. Layers with jam or chocolate inside are optional. If you love coconut and chocolate, you'll love lamingtons!

Our lamington, which includes a layer of raspberry jam, is adapted from a recipe by David Lebovitz. It's a fairly simple recipe, but takes some patience, as the sponge cake doesn't include leavening (no baking powder), so you'll need to whip your eggs and sugar for a long time. You'll also need your stand mixer for this recipe - unless you have some pretty impressive arms for whisking. We also, of course, used our SideSwipe, but if you don't have one yet, use your whisk attachment, not your flat beater for this one. We deviated on some of the directions to make it easier on ourselves. Fell free to make as listed or according to our notes.

NOTE: This recipe requires unsweetened, shredded coconut for the coating. We found ours at Trader Joe's, but you might also find it at smaller, natural food type markets.

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If you have a hankering for some great , crispy+chewy chocolate chip cookies, might we suggest these babies? Chock full of chopped toasted hazlenuts, chopped bittersweet chocolate, toffee chips and oats to make it healthy, these are just what you need to get you through the day. They can easily be made with almond or other gluten-free flour for those who are limiting gluten. They're delicious either way.

Our favorite part of these cookies is that we tossed in the chocolate dust that forms when you chop a thick chocolate bar. It's distributes the chocolateyness throughout, with larger studs of chocolate here and there. We toasted our peeled hazelnuts and then chopped them roughly (no smaller than 1/4 of a nut). You can grind for a smoother cookie if desired.

This recipe makes about 2 dozen 2-1/2 inch cookies. They keep well in a sealed container for several days at room temperature. The cookies or dough can be frozen for up to two months.
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1. Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F.
2. Line 2 large baking sheets with parchment paper.
3. Finely chop about half the oats in a blender or food processor. Transfer the oats to a medium bowl. Mix in the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Set aside.
4. Using your stand mixer fitted with SideSwipe or your flat beater, beat the butter and sugars until fluffy. Beat in the eggs and vanilla until well combined.
5. Add the flour mixture at lowest speed and stir just until blended. Some visible powdery dry ingredients are fine at this point.
6. Again at lowest speed, stir in the toffee, hazelnuts, and chocolate chips. Dough will for a heavy clump.
7. For each cookie, drop 1 rounded tablespoonful of dough onto sheet, spacing 1-inch apart (do not flatten dough). We used a 1 Tablespoon scoop to more uniform cookies, but be aware that these chunky treats do not give you a perfectly rounded cookie. The portioning is more for even baking.
8. Bake until the cookies are golden (cookies will puff a little, then flatten quite a bit), 10-12 minutes. Cool the cookies on the baking sheets for 5 minutes to allow to set up. ​Transfer to a cooling rack and cool completely. (The cookies can be prepared 1 day ahead. Store airtight at room temperature.)

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HINT: For thicker cookies, refrigerate the dough for an hour or overnight and bake as indicated (it will take an extra minute to bake if cold.) If you chill for more than an hour, allow the dough to warm up for 15+ minutes so it's scoopable.