Putting On The Ritz With Spritz
Can anyone share some tips for making spritz cookies? I didn’t grow up making these decorative pressed cookies because my Mom was always biased towards making gingerbread and that’s what my big sisters and I made every December.
Now that I have children of my own, I am intrigued by the traditional pressed cookies because they are small in size and attractive to the eye. I also like the concept because the cookies are easy to embellish with sprinkles and don’t require a messy piping bag.
I’ve tried various presses and now have a vintage Sawa 71, which was made in Sweden and still has the original box, recipe booklet, and multitude of disks. I’ve tried this machine twice and the results have been quite good, although I still haven’t exactly gotten the hang of how to press and release the machine for a perfect cookie every time. Sometimes the cookies form perfectly. And other times, they stick to the press and won't release without me pulling the dough off by hand and thereby destroying the design.
I now also have the Kuhn Rikon Clear Barrel Cookie Press, but I haven’t used it just yet, though I plan to do so this weekend. This model has 20 unique cookie disks and 6 decorative tips. I like the clear barrel feature, because I will be able to tell when more dough needs to be reloaded.
Have any of you mastered spritz cookies? If so, could you please share your traditions and tips? Do you have a favorite recipe or press? And, can you tell me if it is better to work with cold or slightly less cold dough? Thank you!
Photo by Melissa A. Trainer
--Melissa A. Trainer
patty-leigh on December 09, 2009 at 05:45 PM
i'm definitely not a spritz master! last year was my first year. but i was surprised how easy it was. i used the recipe that came with the cookie press and i did try to keep the dough somewhat cool. i found that the shapes with large holes in the middle (wreath shape, etc) broke too easily. also, i took half of the square ones and dipped one end in melted chocolate chips - YUM!
Casey on December 10, 2009 at 02:15 AM
In the past I have used a manual cookie press. I recently puchased an electric cookie press. I found that I had better control with the size and shape of the cookie with the manual one. I also found that a less cold dough works better. At the Kraft Food site has a recipe for Pastel Cookies that uses the cookie press. It is a very old recipe - I started using it about 40 years ago. I makes such favorful cookies using jello.
Colleen Klug on December 10, 2009 at 05:01 AM
hi...I do have something to say about my all time favorite cookie...:)
When I was a little girl, I lived near a very old woman who was originally from Sweden(I think, or somewhere else for sure). She walked on crutches, and always wore her hair in braids wound around her head and pinned in place. She made cookies, your Spritz, and brewed homemade beer. She also LOVED eating crawdads!
I could catch crawdads by hand and LOVED her cookies...I would walk in the creek about a mile with a big 5 gallon bucket, catching as many crawdads as I could, and then lug the whole mess another 2 miles to her house and 'trade' the crawdads for her cookies. She always had a big tin breadbox type thing full of them.
I can see her now smiling with no teeth...she would set a pot on the stove to boil the crawdads in and smile and get a bottle of her home brew to drink...she drank, not me...I was too busy eating cookies, and too young to drink anyway.
Her cookies were good enough to sell in the store and she did sell them at Sherlock's Grocery in St Helens...where I grew up.
This is a good memory, but what I wanted to tell you is her recipe was the authentic one from her life in the Old Country...it was something like a pound of real butter, a pound of sugar, several ounces of GROUND ALMONDS, and maybe some almond extract.
She used an old cookie press..I'm sure from Sweden, and shaped her cookies with the star disk,in the backward 'S' and plain 'O' style which is traditional I believe. YUMMY!!!
I regrettably did not write all this down and did not get her press when she passed on...she did promise it to me...but I have had my eye out for the same style all these years..I did discover an authentic cookie recipe, just have to look it up again...and now is a good time to do that, I will share it when I find it...
As for the ground almonds, Bob's Red Mill from right here in Oregon, has them packaged and already ground as Almond Flour...makes it easy to bake these cookies...
What a nice remembering I have had this morning...going back fifty years and more...this delightful lady was Mrs Hallstrom, but we all called her Grandma Hallstrom...and she gave us cookies..the best kind of Grandma...:)
Sharon on December 10, 2009 at 06:27 AM
Just last week I made spritz pressed cookies with the Wilton cookie press. I followed the recipe that came with the press and it specifically states to Not refridgerate the dough. I was amazed at how clean and perfect they came out. There was also a cheese cracker recipe too, but that did not do as well. Good luck!
Mary on December 10, 2009 at 07:05 AM
Spritz cookies are easier to press if all the ingredients are at room temperature before you start to mix them. Sometimes it is necessary to adjust the amount of flour - if it is very humid you may need a little more. When using a cookie "gun" many or them allow adjustment. It is like a quarter click or click once and a bit.
Toni on December 13, 2009 at 08:12 AM
I have the Kuhn cookie press and have used it for the last two years. With it I was able to make one of my family's favorites from growing up, Cheese Straws! I used the Spritz recipe that comes with the cookie press, and keep the dough at room temperature. It took a little practice, but now it is my favorite part of holiday cookie making! Good luck!