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These Spritz Cookies are buttery, tender and such festive Christmas cookies! The cookie dough is super easy to put together and there’s so many ways to decorate them. A great make-ahead cookie!
Looking for more Christmas cookie recipes? Try my soft gingerbread cookies, or these easy cut out sugar cookies!
I’m going to be honest with you. Spritz cookies never used to appeal to me. Whenever I had them they were store-bought versions or something and they were usually super crispy and lacked flavor. Well as with most things, when you make themselves and see how they should really taste, it changes everything!!
These Spritz Cookies are so dang good! Where have they been all my life?!? As long as you don’t over bake them, they are super soft and tender and stay that was for at least a week. They have a lovely buttery flavor that is accentuated with some soft almond flavor and together it all just melts right in your mouth! I literally couldn’t stop eating them.
And bonus – they are SUPER easy to make! The cookie dough comes together easily and doesn’t need to be refrigerated. And the cookies don’t really spread while baking and their small, so you can make a bunch at a time – quickly and easily!
Now before we go into how to make these awesome cookies, lets talk about what they are exactly. The word “spritz” comes from the German word “spritzen”, which means “to squirt”. They are basically named for the way they are made – by squirting/pressing the cookie dough through a cookie press.
As for taste and texture of these cookies, I would describe them as a cross between a cutout sugar cookie and shortbread. They are like sugar cookies in their simple flavor and the fact that you make them into shapes, but with sugar cookies you’ll use cookie cutters and with spritz cookies, you use a cookie press (which is easier and faster!). They are kind of like shortbread in texture – but totally better. Shortbread is often more dry and crumbly. With the addition of the egg to these cookies, they are more tender and don’t fall apart when you bite into them. Instead they melt in your mouth!
Step 1: Make and Color Your Cookie Dough
- Make the cookie dough. You’ll cream the butter and sugar together, then add the egg and the extracts (I use a little vanilla and almond). Finally, add the flour and salt and mix just until combined.
- Color your cookie dough. If you want to use a few colors, divide your dough into parts and color it. I recommend gel icing color, not food coloring. Gel icing color allows you to add a small amount to achieve bright color. With food coloring you have to add a lot and it thins out your cookie dough, which will cause your cookies to spread too much.
Step 2: Add Your Cookie Dough to a Cookie Press
Now you add your cookie dough to the cookie press and shape your cookies! I’m a big fan of this cookie press, but feel free to use whichever you have.
How to Use a Cookie Press
You’ll add the plate of the shape you want to make to the bottom of the press and then add your cookie dough into the top. Hold the press upright with the bottom directly on the cookie sheet. Press the lever to release a cookie, then lift up the press and you have your cookie!
If the cookie dough sticks to the press, you can use your finger to gently release the cookie. If it holds it’s shape, great. If not, add it back to your press and keep going. It is important to not try to press the cookies out onto something that’s really non-stick, like parchment paper, or you will have trouble.
Step 3: Decorate Your Spritz Cookies!
To decorate the cookies, I used a variety of sprinkles. The options are endless when it comes to sprinkles. But you could also decorate them with chocolate chips or add a chocolate drizzle after baking them.
Step 4: Bake Your Spritz Cookies
Now it’s time to bake the cookies. I wanted to be sure that my cookies were super soft and tender, so I baked them just until they were done – about 5 minutes. Definitely don’t over bake them and dry them out.
The final cookies are purely amazing! Soft, tender and buttery! It’s hard not to eat one right after the other until they’re all gone! These will definitely be a hit for you this Christmas!
- Best Cutout Sugar Cookies for Decorating
- Best Gingerbread Cookies (Soft & Chewy Cutouts)
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- Classic Chewy Snickerdoodles
- White Chocolate Dipped Cranberry Oatmeal Cookies
- Prep Time: 35 minutes
- Cook Time: 5 minutes
- Total Time: 40 minutes
- Yield: 65-70 cookies
- Category: Cookies
- Method: Oven
- Cuisine: American
Description
These Spritz Cookies are buttery, tender and such festive Christmas cookies! The cookie dough is super easy to put together and there’s so many ways to decorate them. A great make-ahead cookie!
Ingredients
- 1 cup (224g) unsalted butter, room temperature
- 3/4 cup (155) granulated sugar
- 1 large egg
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 tsp almond extract
- 2 1/4 cups (293g) all purpose flour
- 1/2 tsp salt
- Red gel icing color, optional
- Green gel icing color, optional
- Sprinkles
Instructions
1. Preheat oven to 350°F (180°C). Line baking sheets with silicone baking mats. I don’t recommend parchment paper with these cookies. You want the cookie dough to stick to the surface you press them onto and parchment paper is non-stick. Set cookie sheets aside.
2. Cream the butter and sugar together in a large mixer bowl on medium speed until light in color and fluffy, about 3-4 minutes. You should be able to see the mixture lighten in color and get a creamy texture and know it’s ready.
3. Add the egg and mix until well combined.
4. Add the vanilla extract and almond extract and mix until well combined.
5. Add the flour and salt and mix until the dough is combined, then remove the bowl from the mixer and finish combining with a rubber spatula, if needed. Do not over mix.
6. If coloring some of the cookie dough, divide it into parts. I used white, red and green, so I divided it evenly into three parts.
7. Use the gel icing color to color the dough. Add small amounts to begin with, then add more as needed. You can always add additional color, but can’t remove it if you add too much. Adding too much liquid will thin out your cookie dough a bit.
8. Add one of the colors of cookie dough to your cookie press (I use this one) and follow the directions for your press to set it up. Hold the cookie press perpendicular to your cookie sheet and press out the cookies. They can be fairly close together, since they don’t really spread.
9. Decorate the cookies with sprinkles, if desired.
10. Bake cookies for 5-8 minutes. I prefer them nice and soft, so I went with 5 minutes, but feel free to increase that time and adjust based on your oven.
11. Remove from the oven and allow to cool on baking sheets for 4-5 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.
12. Store cookies in an air tight container for up to about 1 week.
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1 cookie
- Calories: 48
- Sugar: 2.2 g
- Sodium: 18.1 mg
- Fat: 2.7 g
- Carbohydrates: 5.2 g
- Protein: 0.5 g
- Cholesterol: 9.6 mg
No flavor tasted like play doe mixed with flour wasn’t impressed at all .. definitely will never make again
My cookie press wouldn’t work so I made little balls & flattened with the bottom of a glass dipped in powdered sugar! I think I may just put a dab of frosting on them!
Glad you found a solution!
This looks so good! When I pressed the cookies they were fine, but they totally flattened out. I double checked all my measurements and they were correct. I don’t have silicon mats: tried baking right on pan, on parchment paper(I did see your note about that) and also a baking stone…. Any other suggestions?
I do think cookies spread a touch more without the silicon baking mat, but I wouldn’t expect it to be an issue. Did you use a food scale? I’m not trying to get nitpicky about the flour, but with something like a cookie that isn’t really supposed to spread, a difference of a couple tablespoons can really make a difference. I also read something just yesterday that a lot of people are experiencing issues all of a sudden this year with certain store brands of butter. It seems as though quality isn’t so great with some store brands and that’s causing a lot of inconsistent results for people. My understanding is that brand name butters tend to be better at the moment. I use challenge butter.
I lost my spritz recipe, gave this a try, it’s delicious!
My cookies flattened out. My Christmas trees came out like bells that were about an 8th inch thick.
Bit too much almond extract for me. I only used 1/2tsp and the rest vanilla, still can only taste almond.
Yummy shortbread/sugar cookie.
Also, the 1st batch didn’t spread as much as the ones with powdered color added. Not sure if it’s because it sat out while I batch baked
My dough isn’t sticking to the parchment paper
Parchment paper is non-stick, so it won’t stick well. I recommend a silicone baking mat. You could also try pressing them right onto your cookie sheet, but they will probably brown more on the bottom.
Do I have to use a cookie mold or can I just make the dough into balls?
This cookie dough is intended to not spread. You’ll want to either use a cookie press, pipe them or possibly slice and bake them. For a drop cookie, check out my sugar cookies.
Making these now, but I don’t have almond extract! Is there any way I can substitute this out?!? Help!
You could swap it for vanilla extract.
The dough was too soft so the design didn’t hold its shape. The cookies spread even after chilling the dough for 10 minutes.
I make these cookies every year with my kids and they do not spread. If they spread, then an ingredient was not measured accurately. I would double check them and if you can, use a food scale.
Should I adjust the recipe if I live at high altitude?
Possibly. I don’t really know much about high altitude substitutions.
Can you make the dough ahead of time?? Can it be frozen??
I haven’t tried it before, but I imagine it would be fine to make it ahead and freeze it.
Pressed out effortlessly. Very tender and good spritz cookies!
So glad you enjoyed them!
Follow the recipe perfectly but not coloring the cookie dough and was not able to get any cookies out of my Spritz machine in a shape just a mess, help!!
Can you describe the problem? Why can’t you get any cookies out? Is the dough too thick? Or are they not sticking to your cookie sheet? What is on your cookie sheet – parchment, silicone baking mat, or nothing?
Can you let me know what type of pearls you used? The brand and store. Your cookies are so pretty. Thank you so much.
I use Wilton brand pearl sprinkles. You can find them online. Here are the white ones and the gold ones.
I made these tonight. They looked awesome going into the oven but they spread too much. Not sure what I did wrong?
If they spread too much, then you either didn’t add quite enough flour or you added a little too much butter or sugar (which both would cause more spread). I’d also make sure you used a large egg and not an extra large size egg.