Almond flavored buttery cookies are always a holiday
favorite. These tender cookies are bite-size delicacies and are perfect without
any adornments. But I can’t resist, these cookies just sing out to be decorated
with sugar sprinkles, glitter, dragees, or even candied fruits. I like adding a
red or green candied cherry half to the center of the wreath shapes, but better
yet, try a bit of fruitcake glace mix.
Spritz cookies are a Scandinavian cookie, named for the
German word spritzen, meaning ‘to squirt,’ and are pressed from a cookie press
or piped from a pastry bag. This recipe makes dough that is extremely easy to
work with and the perfect consistency for pressing through a cookie press.
Ingredients:
Dough:
2¼ cups all-purpose flour
¼ teaspoon salt
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
2/3 cup granulated sugar
2 large egg yolks
1½ teaspoons pure vanilla extract
½ teaspoon pure almond extract
Decorations (optional):
Sugar Sprinkles or nonpareils
Dragees
Edible Glitter
Candied fruit such as cherry halves and Minced Fruitcake
glace mix
Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Baking sheets may be
ungreased, lined with parchment paper, or lined with a non-stick baking mat.
Dough:
2. In a medium bowl, combine flour and salt; whisk together
to mix. Set aside.
3.In a large bowl of an electric mixer, add butter and sugar
and mix together on medium speed until smooth and creamy. Use a rubber spatula
to scrap down the side of the bowl as needed. Add the egg yolks, vanilla
extract, and almond extract, beat until thoroughly blended. Reduce the mixer
speed to low and add the flour mixture, mixing just until combined.
4. Fill a cookie press with dough and fit the cookie press
with a plate of your choice. Press the dough at least 1 inch apart onto the
baking sheet. Refill the press as necessary.
Decorations:
5. Before baking, decorate the cookies as desired. Sprinkle
with sugar sprinkles, dragees, or edible glitter. The cookies that are pressed
into a wreath shape are perfect for adding a candied cherry half or filling
with a little bit of fruitcake glace mix.
Bake:
6. Bake 11 to 12 minutes or until the cookies are set or
just barely a pale gold around the edges. Do not over bake and do not brown.
Remove from oven and use a metal spatula to carefully transfer the fragile
cookies to a wire cooling rack to cool.
Makes 80 to 90 cookies
1. The cookie press should come with a selection of plates
to create different shapes. A cookie press allows you to turn out batch after
batch of beautiful cookies. By simply changing the plate you can make cookies
of different shapes such as stars, wreaths, flowers, and trees.
2. Bake a test batch, about 2 or 3 cookies, to test the
consistency of the dough. Spritz cookie dough should be room temperature.
However if the cookie does not hold its pattern, refrigerate the dough for 10
to 15 minutes before pressing. If the dough sticks to the gun while pressing
the cookies it is too stiff; thin the dough with a small amount of milk.
3. When filling the cookie press, form a portion of the
dough into a log slightly smaller than the cookie press cylinder and fit into
the cookie press.
4. To avoid air pockets, load the cookie dough into the
cylinder from the bottom end where the plate is.
5. To press the cookies, hold the press upright and apply
even pressure on the handle to press out the shaped cookies.
6. Dough may be tinted with food coloring. Use small amounts
of color until you reach the desired shade.
