Spritzgebäck is a type of German and Alsatian Christmas biscuit or Christmas cookie made of flour, butter, sugar and eggs. When made correctly, these cookies are crisp, fragile, somewhat dry, and buttery. The German verb spritzen means to squirt in English. As the name implies, these cookies are made by extruding, or 'squirting' the dough with a press fitted with patterned holes (a cookie press) or with a cake decorator, or pastry bag, to which a variety of nozzles may be fitted. In the United States, the name Spritzgebäck is often shortened to spritz becoming known as the spritz cookie.
Recently, when SveBake sent me this cookie press, I had my mind on making these cookies. I have made cookies like Indian Nankhatai, chocolate cookies using a mooncake press and Christmas cookies using cookie cutter. This was my first experience with a cookie press. The press is easy to use. Just make the dough, add to the press and start making the cookies on a cookie sheet. The operation is super quick and easy. One click gives a petite cookie and two clicks give a fat nice cookie. I liked the way the press works! Get yours today from Amazon. Easy to use and quick to clean.
So back to the recipe, I made a crazy amount of dough using this recipe. I lightly flavored the dough with almond extract and on baking, the extract gives a great flavor. This is a good change from the common vanilla and chocolate flavors that I have made in the past. Love this new flavor!
After seeing the amount of dough, I was sure I wanted to make two kinds of cookies. So I divided the dough into half, pressed out cookies using one half and made a marbled red velvet cookies from the remaining dough. All the cookies can be made in under an hour and they taste divine. Do try these cookies at home and enjoy!
Ingredients
All Purpose Flour 2 ¼ cups
Unsalted Butter 1 cup
Sugar ½ cup
Medium Egg 1
Almond Extract ¼ tsp
Salt ¼ tsp
Red Velvet Essence ¼ teaspoon (optional)
Method
Soften the butter, powder the sugar and let the egg be at room temperature. In a mixing bowl, cream the sugar and egg. Once done, add the almond extract and mix well. In another bowl, mix flour and salt. Add the wet ingredients and bring it all together by hand. Make a really soft dough using some milk if need be. The dough making is little time consuming, but it helps in making perfect cookies.
I divided the dough into two parts. Preheat the oven to 400 F/ 200 C. Line a cookie tray with a cookie sheet. Using half the dough as is, place the dough in the cookie press. Choose your shape and start making cookies on the cookie sheet. Bake them for 8-9 minutes, till the bottom is slightly brown.
To the second part I added red velvet essence in parts to get a marble effect. I could have made more pressed cookies using this dough, but I chose to make round cookies. So just made small rounds and baked them for 8 minutes too. Remove the baking tray, cool for 5 minutes and transfer to a airtight container. They are good for at least a week. We finished our batch in under two days though 🙂
**One or more products in this post were sent to me for a discounted price for review purposes. However, all the opinions are unbiased and completely my own.
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