I have been having a spritz press for a few years now, but the first time when I tried the recipe in the booklet that came with the press, it was a disaster – the cookies came deformed out of the press and did not want to stick to the pan. It was a huge disappointment, especially since I really followed the recipe (yes, very unusual for me 😉 ) and I bought the press with an big excitement and enthusiasm to recreate the wonderful, melting-in-your-mouth cookies my Mom used to make, when I was a child.
So, the press was sitting in my kitchen cabinet with no real chance to get to work again, until I saw a great, detailed video on you tube from a lady I really like, because her recipes are well done, balanced and excellently explained. And here I am, together with my daughter, giving spritz cookies a second time. They turned out amazing – perfect texture and colour and most of all, my daughter had a blast pressing them on her own.
I did very small modifications to the original recipe by Joy of Baking and would like to share my version with all of you.
Spritz Cookies
For this recipe you need a spritz cookie press. I use this one, however please choose the one you like or already have.
Ingredients
- 230g unsalted butter – I use organic one, but any type would do.
- 100g regular sugar
- 2 large eggs – the original recipe called for 32g of whole eggs, I didn’t measure mine.
- 1tsp vanilla extract
- 1 tsp pure almond extract (I used half the dough with vanilla and the other half with almond)
- 260g bread flour
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1 cup very well drained canned sour cherries (optional)
- 1 cup dark chocolate for decorating – I use Belgium chocolate
- some cold butter to smear the cookie pan with
Directions
- Pre-heat the oven to 350 F/180 C.
- In a mixer, beat the slightly soft butter with the sugar, until it becomes a light yellow, homogeneous cream.
- Add the eggs, continue mixing on a lower speed until the eggs are fully and evenly incorporated.
- Add the salt to the flour, mix the dry mixture well and then add it to the butter,sugar and eggs.
- Mix well.
- When it’s ready, split the dough in 2 and add the vanilla to the one half and the almond flavor to the second half. We also added red food coloring to the one with almond, but this is totally optional, it only adds interest and variety to the cookies.
- Prepare your spritz cookie press with the desired shape, fill the cylinder with dough and close it.
- Put some butter on the bottom of the cookie pan – cold butter works best, as you want the cookies to stick to it.
- Star pressing your cookies on the pan. I don’t provide mu details here, as there is a big variety of presses on the market and yours might be different than mine. Simply follow the manufacturer’s instructions.
- Put the cookie pan in the oven (middle rack) and bake until the edges of the cookies start turning lightly golden (not brown!!!). The spritz cookies are baked the same way as general shortbread cookies. Let them cool down on the pan a bit and then transfer to a cooling rack to fully cool ( they are very gentle and break down if you attempt to move them right away).
- You can put a sour cherry in the middle for some ( usually if they chosen dough form has a hole in the middle) and baked them together.
- Continue with the rest of the dough and with forms that you like.
- When all the cookies are baked and cooled down, melt the chocolate and use it for decorating – I usually dip one end of the cookies it it. Otherwise the chocolate is overpowering the gentle taste of the cookies.
Bite of Chocolate 