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Crisp, fragile, and buttery
tasting. Great for Christmas goodies. What Christmas holiday cookie plate would be complete without Spritz Cookies? My mother made these every Christmas
season since I was little, and I make them
now. Spritz are traditional Christmas cookies in Scandinavian
countries. They are simple butter cookies, shaped by putting the dough through a cookie
press. A Norwegian tradition is to make them in
shapes of S's and O's. The name comes from "spritzen," which is German for
"to squirt or spray."
You'll need a cookie press to make these
cookies. The cookie press comes
with a variety of discs to make various shapes of cookies as Spritz cookies are formed into a variety of
fun shapes.
Check out more of Linda's favorite
Cookie Recipes
and
Secrets To Making Perfect Cookies.
Also learn
How To Have A Successful Holiday Cookie Exchange or Cookie
Swap.
Shop
What's Cooking America's Kitchen Store for all
your cooking wants and needs. The store includes a large assortment
for all your cookie baking
needs such as
cookie sheets,
wire cooling racks,
brownie pans,
cookie
cutters,
cookie press,
cookie decorating kits,
Silicone Baking Mats,
and
more.
Spritz Cookie Recipe - Spritzgeback
Cookie Recipe
Recipe Type:
Cookie,
Christmas Cookies,
Molded Cookies
Yields: 6 dozen
Prep time: 20 min
Cook time: 12 min
Ingredients:
2 cups butter, room temperature*
1 cup granulated
sugar
1
egg, well beaten
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
4 cups sifted all-purpose
flour
* You must use butter in this recipe. The
secret of a great spritz cookie is a dough that is fat enough to press or
pipe yet sturdy enough to hold it shape in the oven. It must be butter.
If desired, you can also color the dough with food
coloring.
Preparation:
Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.
Refrigerate UNGREASED
cookie sheets until ready to use.
NOTE:
Pressing the dough out onto cool, ungreased baking sheets makes it possible
for each application to stick on contact. You will need to clean off the
cookie sheets between batches.
In a large bowl, mix butter
until creamy.
Either use your electric mixer or beat by hand. Gradually add sugar; cream until light and fluffy. Add egg and beat well;
stir in vanilla extract. Gradually add flour to mixture, beating well after each addition.
The secret lies in the dough, which should
be neither too soft nor too firm. It it is too soft, the cookies will have
no definition, and if the dough is to firm, the cookies will bake too dry. To test the dough's consistency before baking a batch,
press a small amount of dough through the cookie press cylinder.
- If the dough is too
soft so that it doesn't go through cleanly, chill the dough for about 15
minutes.
- If the dough seems too
firm, stir into the dough about 1 or 2 teaspoons whole milk.
- If dough becomes too soft
during use, refrigerate dough
about 5 minutes or until firm enough to hold its shape (the dough will crumble if it is
too cold, and it won't stick to the cookie sheet).
Using the Cookie Press:
(disks can include wreath shapes,
stars, crescents, etc).
Begin cranking and twisting
(if you use an automatic cookie press follow
manufacturer's instructions) the cookie dough through cookie
press, forming desired shapes, onto chilled ungreased cookie
sheets about 1-inch apart. If you press your spritz
cookies the old fashioned way with a crank or twist press, the
secret is all in the wrist. Turn the
crank or the twist with the right hand, and then just before you
are done, counter twist with the left hand and press gently
down, then pull up and off the dough. To purchase a
Cookie Press, check out
What's Cooking America's Kitchen Store
for all your cookie baking needs.
Hold the press upright in
relation to the cookie sheet with the "legs" resting flat, and force out the
dough until it appears at the edge of the mold, then lift the press away. Keep your cookies about 1-inch apart on the cookie sheet. Sprinkle with colored sugar
or
add a maraschino cherry half
before baking, if
desired.
NOTE: I never get a
perfect cookie the first, second or the 5th time out of the press. It takes
patience and practice, and then the dough reaches the right temperature and the perfect spritz
cookie eases out onto the sheet.
Baking Spritz Cookies:
Bake 10 to 12 minutes in your
preheated oven, rotating baking sheet halfway through baking time, or until light brown.
Remove from oven and cool on baking sheet until just warm, approximately 10
to 15 minutes.
Using a thin, wide metal spatula, transfer cookies to
wire cooling racks, and cool to room temperature.
When cookies are completely cool, store airtight
at room temperature for up to several days. Freeze for longer storage
in airtight bags. These
cookies will pick up moisture from the air; on a damp day it takes only six hours to turn
crisp cookies into soft cookies.
Yields 6 dozen cookies.
Shape Suggestions:
1. Use the flower or star shaped disc and top each with a
maraschino cherry half before
baking.
2. Add a few drops of green food coloring to the dough and use the tree shaped disc, then
top tree-shaped cookies with tiny colored candy sprinkles before baking.
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This Christmas season, my grandchildren took some of the Spritz
cookie dough and made these delightful snowmen.
They had lots of
fun doing this and also enjoyed eating them!
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 Spritz Cookie Flavor Variations:
Almond Spritz
- Replace the vanilla extract with pure almond extract.
Butterscotch or Camamel Spritz
- Substitute brown sugar for white (only change).
Chocolate Spritz
- Add 2 ounces melted unsweetened chocolate to sugar mixture.
Be sure the chocolate is cool before adding to mixture. Another chocolate
variation is to substitute 1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder for 1/4 cup
of the flour and add along with the sugar to the beaten butter in the
mixing bowl.
Coffee Spritz
- Add 1 tbsp instant coffee and 1/4 cup pecans with the sugar.
Lemon Spritz
- Replace the vanilla extract with 1 tablespoon lemon juice and 1
teaspoon lemon zest (rind).
Orange Spritz
- Add 1 tablespoon grated orange zest with dry ingredients.
Orange Pecan Spritz
- Add 2
tbsp orange peel and 1/2 cup pecans when you add the flour.
Peanut
Butter Spritz -
Reduce butter to 2/3 cup. Add 1/2 cup peanut
butter
Create a
marble effect -
Fill the press tube with a portion of regular spritz dough along one length of the press cylinder, and a portion of
Chocolate spritz dough along the remaining length of the cylinder. Press
out dough through a decorative disc onto baking sheets for an
interesting marble design.
Icing for Cookies (optional):
Rum icing
1 cup
powdered (confectioners') sugar
1/4 cup butter, softened
2 tablespoons water
1/4 teaspoon rum extract
In a small bowl stir together
powdered sugar, butter, water, and rum extract until smooth.
Drizzle or spread with a knife over warm cookies.
Vanilla Glaze
1 cup
powdered (confectioners') sugar
2 tablespoons milk
1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
In a small bowl, stir together
powdered sugar, milk, and vanilla extract until smooth.
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