How to bake the perfect spritz cookie

Baking seemed just the right thing over the weekend, in all the weirdness and sadness and the sense that we should be getting ready for Christmas even when it didn't feel quite right. So I baked. It's a comforting way to spend a few hours, quiet and reassuring and contemplative somehow. 

It's not Christmas unless I bake my mother's spritz cookies. Which I probably should call the spritz cookies my mother used to bake, since she is constantly tinkering with new recipes. This is wrong on so many levels. In addition, I have been accused - some years justly, some years not - of being impatient and even unpleasant when I make spritz cookies. Sometimes they just don't want to come out of the press right. Some years I make them late in the evening, and I start cleaning up the kitchen, and I forget there's still a pan in the oven and I burn them. One year I dropped a whole pan of just-baked cookies on the floor. Some years the spritz cookies have made me curse out loud.

My technique has improved over time. Still, the house generally empties out when I mention what cookies I'm about to bake.

In recent years, it has become something of a tradition to make spritz cookies for our friend Bill. He very much looks forward to them. In fact, this year he posted on Facebook that it would be only a few more weeks until he would be getting spritz cookies. The pressure was on.

And - maybe it was dumb luck - but I think I have finally mastered the spritz. I have been making spritz cookies every year for at least the last 20 years, and this was the first that every single cookie came out of the press properly, and none of them burned.

Here is what I have learned:

Do not let the butter get overly soft. It should be just soft enough to cream with the sugar, but not slumpy, and absolutely not melted.

Do not overmix the dough. Stop mixing as soon as the ingredients come together.

Don't re-press the dough. If you have a cookie that doesn't come out of the press right, put the dough aside in a bowl. When you're done pressing the cookies, take any leftover bits and chill them slightly - maybe 15 minutes in the refrigerator - and then press them.

Don't grease the cookie sheet. If you're reusing a cookie sheet for a subsequent batch, make sure it's cooled off. (Either pop it in the refrigerator or run it under some cold water and dry it off.)

It's kind of a science with me at this point.

I don't know if my technique works with other recipes, but here's the recipe I use:

The spritz cookies my mother used to bake

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups (3 sticks) of butter, room temperature

2 teaspoons of vanilla

1 cup of sugar

1 well-beaten egg

4 cups of flour

1 teaspoon of baking powder

A pinch of salt

Sugar or sprinkles for decoration

Instructions:

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.

Cream together the butter, vanilla and sugar. Add the egg and beat well. Add the dry ingredients and mix until just combined. Place dough in cookie press and shape cookies. (I think trees are the most foolproof, not to mention festive.) Decorate with sugar or sprinkles. Bake for 8 to 10 minutes, but check them at 7 minutes. Take them out of the oven when they're barely golden on the edge. Let them sit on the cookie sheet for just a minute, then remove and cool on a rack. This recipe makes dozens and dozens of little cookies.

Then you can package them up and take them to your friend, and that part is the best of all.

 

 

 

Comments

[BillP]

The author of this blog made these cookies for me and
I can say that they are very, very delicious.
Thank you Barbara!

[laurie magpie ethel]

Bill you are a very lucky fellow, my mouth is watering just looking at those cookies. My mom makes them, but I have never attempted them. Perhaps I need to hunt down a spritz press at the next estate sale or borrow my moms....

[JoAnne McPHerson]

I was going to add that for the perfect spritz, you must use the old zinc/copper press with the screw handle that you twist yourself! I totally agree with the cookie sheet. If it is "greasy" or warm, the cookies won't cling the little bit that is necessary to make them.

[Tina]

You know, these are my favorite. My mother makes them perfectly. I guess I should learn how, but she'll have to hand over the press.

[Martha]

Your cookies look wonderful, and your tips are great. I also make these every year with a Mirro press I purchased at the Goodwill 40 years ago, and I've also burned, dropped, and sworn at the cookies and the old press. For me, it's all about the rhythm and, although I've gotten better over the years, I have never been able to make a batch without screwing up a few.

One thing I have changed since our kitchen remodel -- now I press the cookies onto the granite counter and then transfer them to the baking sheet with a spatula. There's more room to press, and I can place the cookies closer together on the sheet which means less time baking (and swearing).

Emily and I like to tint our tree dough green, and add a tiny yellow sugar star to the top, but it's hard to find those stars anymore, so I usually have to order them from the UK.

[Ruthann]

I have to make the trees green to make them like my mom did.

[Mary Kay Andrews]

I tried making those cookies as a newlywed and failed miserably. The cookie press is not my friend!

[julie thompson]

I am making cookies this weekend and will follow your tips. I trust your science completely!

[Into Vintage]

Several years ago I received a vintage NIB cookie press -- at least that's what I think it is. The box calls it a 'cookie-chef trigger quick' and to me it looks exactly like a caulking gun. All the little discs are there including the tree so I think I'll be doing some baking, oodles-style, this week.

[Maria (Magia Mia)]

Amy beat me to it!

My mom has always baked these cookies, for at least my entire life. She had one of those old metal guns, then got seduced by the newfangled plastic ones, and got rid of her old one. Never have I seen my mom more frustrated than when using the new gun.

So I got sick of hearing her bitch over the new one, and one day while making a GW run, I found an old metal Cookie Chef, in the original box with discs. It even has a cookie thickness dial.

Tonight she used it for the first time, and she couldn't have been more thrilled that they all came out perfectly......and all is right with the cookie world once more........and they lived happily ever after........

[Heather]

Oh my, these look so yummy!! And, I love that sweet tablecloth peeking through! Thanks for sharing! Merry Christmas!! xo Heather

[Cheapchick]

My Mom used to make them. I would like to make them but need a Spritz Cookie machine - something to put on my thrift store wish list!

[Kim k.]

You've convinced me I need to get a press. They look delightful. I have fond memories of these cookies growing up.

[Sharrieboberry]

Your spriz cookies look great!

I use those same baking tips when I make cut-out sugar cookies. If the dough gets too warm either from sitting out or sitting on a too-warm cookie sheet, they just do not hold their shape.

[Kathy]

I felt the same way on Sunday and actually baked cookies for probably the first time in about 15 years. After the kids were grown and gone I just stopped because my husband and I absolutely do not need a pile of cookies sitting on the kitchen counter!
My neighbor used to make the best Spritz cookies and she gave me the recipe years ago. I think I tried it exactly ONE time and it is possible I may have actually thrown the cookie press on the floor at one point...
Kudos to you for your tenacity!

[Poppy K]

Thanks for the recipe! My mom used to make these every Christmas but unfortunately most of her recipes couldn't be found when she passed away. You cookies look just like hers did and I'm going to take her cookie press and give them a try this weekend.

[kippy]

Mom and I used to make these every Christmas-but the kind that look like furrowed strips that are cut on a diagonal. One secret is to put the dough in bowl in the fridge for a few minutes if it gets too sticky soft. I'd make some this year, but would eat too many!

[Jewels]

I'm drooling (and counting calories LOL) just looking at them....I think a very good thing to do this sad weekend....

[whit]

Merry Spritzmas! These look great!

[Mitzi Curi]

Your photos make the cookies jump right off the computer screen! I can almost taste them from here. If I ever decide to try spritz cookies, I will refer to your recipe for sure!