Making these buttery German Spritz Cookies (called Spritzgebäck in German) brings up the most warming memories of spending time in my Oma Sieghilde's small kitchen table and making them with her. Also check out my Top 5 German Christmas Cookies while you're here!
Spritz cookie press
We're starting off our annual Christmas cookie baking with this German classic: Spritzgebäck. Baking Weihnachtsplätzchen (German Christmas Cookies) has always been something we would do at our Oma Sieghilde's house.
The memories! Sitting at the table in her tight, little wood-wrapped kitchen, handing her some of the ingredients out of the cabinets and carrying up more (like eggs) from her Keller (a German basement room often used as a pantry).
Making Spritzgebäck was always rather frustrating. The dough was often so hard, it was too hard to press through the Spritz press. One year she finally bought a cookie press like the one I used for my cookies, with different plates to switch out for different shaped cookies, and that made life a lot easier.
How to make them
The dough is simple to put together and after chilling in the fridge for an hour (or longer if you need to), goes through this Spritz cookie press without much trouble! It's so fun to make all the different shapes with kids, too!
The even funner part: dipping the cookies in melted chocolate after the cooling and sprinkling on nuts! You can let your imagination run free here (think milk chocolate or even white chocolate and any kinds of nuts or even sprinkles for the topping), but the most classic choice is probably semi-sweet chocolate to dip the cookies and crushed almond slices or chopped hazelnuts for the toppings.
More German cookies
Check out my blog post featuring my 5 favorite German Christmas cookie recipes.
Spritzgebäck: German Spritz Cookies
Ingredients
Spritzgebäck Dough
- 500 g flour
- 250 g sugar
- 250 g butter
- 8 g baking powder
- 2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- 1 egg
- 1 egg yolk
- 1 teaspoon sea salt omit if using salted butter
Chocolate Glaze
- 200 g semi sweet chocolate can also use milk chocolate or even white chocolate for a different twist!
- 2 tablespoon vegetable oil any neutral tasting oil is great here
Toppings
- 50 g sliced almonds dry roasted in a skillet, then crushed
Instructions
- Prepare the dough by adding together all ingredients (best if they're all at room temperature), and then kneading until you achieve a smooth, firm dough. Cover in wrap and rest in the fridge for one hour.
- Remove dough from fridge and gradually press through a spritz cookie press, then bake in a 180 degree Celsius, 355 degree Fahrenheit (second rack from bottom) for 10 to 15 minutes or until just starting to turn golden. Transfer to a cooling rack.
- Once cool, melt together the chocolate and oil in a double boiler. I use a stainless steel bowl sitting in a pot filled with some water. Once melted, dip the cookies and transfer back to the baking sheet. Feel free to sprinkle with some dry-roasted, crushed almond slices, or chopped hazelnuts or other nuts. Once dry, store in an airtight container for several weeks (if they last you that long!).
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