Spritz Cookies

[roguesylph]

Originally published at BlackTabi Blog. You can comment here or there.

According to Wikipedia, spritz is actually short for spritzgebäck.  I’ve never known them by any name other than spritz, but I’m willing to take their word for it.  The article goes on to mention that spritz are traditionally made in Germany during the Christmas season, when

Comments

[lisefrac]

Matt and I also make spritz cookies! ("geback," by the way, is just the German word for cookie). I dunno the root of our recipe, other than that it came from Matt's parents, but ours includes crushed almonds.

Also, your cookie press turns out much better shaped cookies than ours!

We've been doing a lot of Christmas baking, too - chocolate oatmeal drop cookies (which aren't dropped, they're rolled, so I don't know why they're called that), haystacks/nutty twists, yulakhaka (Norwegian Christmas bread)... and soon pizzelles and sugar cookies.

[roguesylph]

Oh, good to know about the german word for cookie. THat makes more sense!

Our press is a pain in the arse. I scraped at least half the cookies off the pan for a re-try. The tube is metal (I think?), but the piece that holds the plate on the front is plastic, and it pops part-way off whenever there's any pressure put against it. Combine that with buttery hands from the dough, and it was sort of a disaster. Next year I'll let the butter soften more, wash my hands before trying to use the press, and hold it firmly against the pan in hopes of keeping the front on where it's supposed to be.

If that doesn't work, I'm buying an all-metal one with a screw front.

[laurion]

We also make spritz cookies. This year we did them with an almond flavored cookie. Hmm. I think we happen to have the same cookie press. *wink*

My family is a Betty Crocker Cookbook family, so my parents gave me a copy when I moved into my first apartment, but I'm fairly cookbook agnostic, and will flip open the BC, the Joy of Cooking, the WW equivalent of the BC, or whatever I think is likely to have a recipe I can make or mold into something I want.