Little colorful buttery nuggets of cookie goodness. Cookie presses take a little getting used to - each one is different. The trick is to have the dough cold enough to hold its shape, but not rock hard so you can't turn the handle and press the cookies out. Start with a drop or two of food coloring, you can always add more.

Preheat oven to 400°. Cream butter and sugar, add egg and VANILLA. Mix salt, GINGER, and CINNAMON into flour. Add to wet ingredients. Knead the dough by hand until soft and pliable. Divide dough into sections for coloring. Flatten each section into a disc. Put about 2 drops of food coloring in the center and knead the dough until the color is evenly distributed. Form the dough into loaves approximately the size of the chamber of your cookie press. If the dough is too soft to work with, chill for about 30 minutes. Press the dough through the cookie press onto ungreased cookie sheets. Decorate as desired with colored sugar or other decorations before baking. Bake at 400° for about 8 minutes.

Yield: about 4 dozen cookies.
Prep. time: 15 minutes, plus 30 minutes chilling time.
Baking time: about 8 minutes per pan.