Butter spritz cookies are pressed almond butter cookies piped straight onto the sheet with a cookie press, baked in under ten minutes. That makes them the fastest Christmas cookie for a cookie exchange or a gift tin, since there is no rolling, no cutting and no chilling. One batch gives 5 dozen.
The dough only sticks to bare, cool, ungreased metal. Parchment, a silicone mat or a greased sheet all make the press lift the dough straight back up. A warm sheet from the last batch does the same, so keep a spare pan going.
Half a teaspoon of salt sits in the ingredient list and never appears in the method. Sift it in with the flour and baking powder. Two sticks of unsalted butter and two and a half cups of flour taste flat without it.
Butter Spritz Cookies
Course: DessertCuisine: AmericanDifficulty: Easy4
servings30
minutes40
minutes300
kcalButter and powdered sugar creamed until airy, flavored with vanilla and almond, then pressed into shapes and scattered with sprinkles. Baked just until firm so they stay pale and tender.
Ingredients
- For the Cookies:
2 sticks (8 ounces) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 cup confectioners’ sugar
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon almond extract
1 large egg
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon fine salt
Sprinkles, for garnish
Directions
- Cream the butter: Heat the oven to 350 degrees F. Beat the butter and confectioners sugar with an electric mixer until light and fluffy, about 5 minutes. Add the vanilla, almond extract and egg and mix them in. It may look separated at this point, which is normal.
- Add the dry: Sift the flour, baking powder and salt together, then mix them into the creamed butter until just combined. The salt is in the ingredient list on the original but missing from its method, so do not leave it out.
- Press the shapes: Fill a cookie press about two thirds full and press the cookies onto bare, cool, ungreased baking sheets. Do not use parchment, a silicone mat or any grease, because the dough will not release onto them. Scatter sprinkles over the tops.
- Bake: Bake 6 to 8 minutes, until the cookies are firm but have not started to brown. Pale is what you want here. Leave them on the sheet a couple of minutes, then move them to a rack to cool.
- Repeat on a cool pan: Work through the dough in batches, always pressing onto a fully cooled sheet. A warm pan melts the dough on contact and the shapes slump. Running two or three pans in rotation keeps it moving.
Notes
- The original lists salt but never uses it in the method. Five dozen cookies take about an hour start to finish, not the 23 minutes on the card. The 56 calories a cookie does check out.
FAQs
Why does the card say 23 minutes?
Creaming alone takes 5 minutes, then you press sixty cookies one at a time and bake them across three or four trays. That is closer to an hour. The 15 minutes of oven time only covers two trays, not five dozen cookies.
Do I need a cookie press?
For this shape, yes, since the dough is too soft to roll and too stiff to pipe through a cloth bag. A sturdy piping bag with a large star tip gets you rosettes instead. Fill the press only two thirds full or the handle fights you.
Can I chill the dough?
No, and this is the one dough where chilling ruins it. Cold butter will not push through a press, so the dough has to stay at room temperature from start to finish. If it stiffens while you work, warm the press barrel in your hands.
What is the almond extract doing?
Half a teaspoon is what makes a spritz taste like a spritz rather than a plain butter cookie. It is strong, so do not increase it. A similar trick of flavoring a plain butter dough shows up in these citrus butter dipping cookies.
How long do they keep?
Two weeks in an airtight tin, and they freeze baked for three months, which is better than most Christmas cookies. The low moisture is why. Layer them with parchment like these sugar cookies so the sprinkles do not scratch.
