Our Story: Disks, Press, and Us!

Hello and welcome to Impress! Cookie Press Disks!

We are a specialty company with a boutique collection of cookie press disks designed and manufactured in the USA by our small, family-owned and operated company. We are two moms (who happen to be sisters-in-law) who are spritz cookie fanatics! Offering the largest, most unique selection of cookie press disk shapes is our passion, and providing exceptional customer service is at the heart of our values. Cookie presses are not just for Christmas anymore!

I’m Susie, disk designer/recipe developer at Impress! and I’m on a mission to re-invent how you use your cookie press. Since 2014 I’ve designed over 200 new disk designs for you to get creative with. On this website and my Creative Cookie Press blog I showcase my ideas, creations, and recipes, accented with photos and videos to help you get the most out of your press and our disks. I use those blogs to teach and share with you everything I know about pressing cookies. I share pressing techniques, tips about dough and presses, troubleshooting ideas and more. We offer dozens of unique shapes to press, and dozens of decorating and recipe blogs to get your creative ideas flowing!

 About Our Disks & Press: Then & Now

Our cookie press disks are made with a special 3/32″ thick, highly durable, food-safe, BPA-free material. We think of them as beautiful little works of art in their own right! From 2014 to 2018 our disks were made of a thick, clear, food grade plastic. We were closed for most of 2018-19 while I dealt with my daughter’s serious illness. (I talk about this in my closure and re-opening posts on the blog.) In 2019 we were able to re-open and made some big changes.

This excerpt from my “We’re back! Meet our new Disks and Press!” post explains all about our new Disks, Disk sizing, and our new Press:

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As I said in our re-opening post, the downtime while my daughter was ill allowed us to really think about what changes would make Impress! even better than before. Our own needs and years of customer feedback went into our thoughts. Our first decision was an easy one.

The Impress! Cookie Press and our new Disk Size

We decided to finally offer a press of our own and make all of our disks designed mainly to fit our press. It’s been hard offering an “aftermarket” disk product with so many different presses out there! Offering our own press that our disks are designed to fit helps us and our customers. By doing this we could eliminate the troublesome “what disk size do I need?” question.

After a LOT of trial and error a disk size was chosen that fit not just our press but as many others as possible, including nearly everything that our former “size M” fit. A “universal” disk size turned out to be impossible, as the size gap is just too great among some of the top brands in presses. As size M was by far our most requested size, it made sense to stick with something compatible with that. On our website and on Amazon we have a list of presses that we know the new disks do and do not fit.

We knew disk thickness was sometimes an issue for people, so we decided to start using only the thinner white material we’d always offered as an option. We hope you’ll all be as happy with the change as we are! I have to admit I’ll miss baking with and photographing the sparkling clear disks, but the change was worth it.

Now about our press!

It is a classic style that’s been around for years. Our original 2014 disks were designed and tested on this style of press. While there are many companies making variations on this theme, they are definitely not all created equal. Some are of exquisite quality. Others? Not so much. We searched for a manufacturer that would produce to our quality standards. I wanted smooth rings that didn’t grind and weren’t a pain in the rear to attach. I wanted a gliding lever for the handle that gave great leverage and control. I wanted it to be made of aluminum because I, like many of you, have some pain issues and a heavy press made baking far less fun. I prefer fully-threaded rings that screw on tight instead of the push-on quarter turn versions that can break or pop off under pressure.

The result of my fastidiousness: a press made of lightweight metals with a beautiful high gloss aluminum barrel, so it’s easy to clean and light in your hands. Top and bottom rings that have a smooth, gliding movement for easy assembly, refilling, and disk changing. A lever with a smooth motion that’s easy to operate.

And hey, even if our disks don’t sparkle anymore, the press sure does. 🙂

Already have a press? Or one that fits our old size P disks? It’s always a great idea to have a backup, especially during the busy baking holidays! Our press is a good value for the money. It’s priced so you’re getting a set-and-a-half of disks (by our usual 8 disk set standard) included and only five dollars more for the press itself. We know some of you with size P-fitting presses will be affected by our new disk size, so we really tried to make the press disks exciting and fresh and the press a good value.

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(See more about our disks, changes to existing sets, and see all of the new sets in my post "We’re back! Meet our new Disks and Press!")

Contact us any time, we’re easy to talk to, real people, raising our kids and running this small business. We’ve poured our hearts and our families’ love into our products, our recipes, and into supporting YOU, our customers who make running this awesome company possible. We are dedicated to providing you with the best customer support we can, whether you have disk questions, need troubleshooting help, have dough woes, or just want to share pictures of the cool cookies you’ve baked! Seriously, we love getting cookie pictures! Reach out at doughwoes@impressbakeware.com

A special thanks to everyone who cheered us on, sent us kind and touching notes, and reached out checking in on Susie’s daughter. It meant the world to us and to her. You guys are the best. We’ve been overwhelmed by your thoughtfulness.

Here’s to new baking adventures for all of us.

Happy Baking!

~Susie & Jill

For fun here’s the old 2014 story of how Impress! Bakeware came to be… ;)

The Story of how Impress! Bakeware was born…

I’ve been baking spritz cookies for as long as I can remember. My mom handed me a cookie press as soon as I was old enough to hold one, teaching me how to gently squeeze soft dough onto cookie sheets, and how to shake a bottle of sanding sugar with just the right amount of finesse. I mastered those fun skills and I’ve been hooked on petite melt-in-your-mouth cookies ever since!

Spritz cookies are a tradition in my family. Every Christmas my mom, brother & I would press out dozens of Christmas tree and wreath shaped cookies, sprinkling them with sanding sugars and decorating the trees with little “stars” on top and colored sugar or nonpareils as “lights”. Aromas of cookies baking in the oven, and sights of bowls of dough and bottles of sanding sugars on the kitchen table are some of my favorite holiday memories.

But the rest of the year? Our poor cookie press probably got lonely. Stuffed away back in its cabinet, pulled out only occasionally in the spring- if we remembered that there was a butterfly disk in the press box. Using pastel sugars to make butterflies was a nice change from the bright colors of Christmas cookies, but I’d always longed for more ways to use a press.

Let’s face it. The disks that come with most cookie press kits are… hmm… nice, but pretty boring. It seems the designs haven’t changed in 50 years, and they are mostly just geometric patterns. When compared to the world of cutout cookies (where any shape under the sun seems to exist!) cookie press shapes come off as dull.

I set out to change all that. I wanted the cookie press to be as versatile and as much fun as any set of cookie cutters. I wanted everyone to be able to “get creative with their cookie press”. So, after much research into manufacturing and materials, and several years of disk designing and re-designing, we bring you Impress!™ cookie press disks.

And so our company, Impress! Bakeware™ was born. Your cookie press? It’s NOT just for Christmas anymore!

Enjoy your cookie presses as never before, and please contact us anytime. We love to hear from you.

Impress! Bakeware, LLC Is a family-owned company, started by two moms (who happen to be sisters-in-law and best friends!) with a love of cookies. From our families to yours, keep on baking!