Another German Christmas favourite, Spritzgebäck used to be my grandma's Christmas cookie of choice, so it holds a special place in my heart. Dipped in chocolate or not, these cookies are easily made and can be decorated in all kinds of ways to give them a little bit of an upgrade. While the original recipe yields straight cookies, I prefer to pipe them in the shape of a rose with a Wilton 1M tip.
Ingredients:
Dough:
- 400g all-purpose flour (2 1/2 cups)
- 250g unsalted butter (~1 cup)
- 200g caster sugar (1 cup)
- 2 tsp baking powder
- 1 pack vanilla sugar
- 2 eggs
- 1 tbsp lemon juice
Decorations:
- 50-70% cocoa dark chocolate
- Christmas sprinkles
Wait until the butter is softened before you start mixing the ingredients. Once softened, mix the ingredients in the order stated above until the dough is evenly mixed. Form a ball and wrap it in plastic wrap. Store it in the fridge for at least 1/2 hour, ideally an hour.
Pre-heat the oven to 180C/350F.
If you are piping the dough with a piping bag and tip, you might have to let the dough sit a little at room temp before you can pipe it. Otherwise, German grannies tend to use a Fleischwolf (meat grinder) with a cookie attachment. In this case, you should not have to let the dough warm up. While traditional Spritzgebäck is shaped like a rod, I prefer to pipe little roses with a Wilton 1M tip. Pipe onto parchment paper on a cookie tray and bake right away. Do not let the piped cookies sit on top of the warm oven while it heats up or they will start to spread out.
Bake cookies for 10-15 minutes until golden brown. Let cool until they are easy to handle. Heat dark chocolate in the microwave or in a water bath. If using the microwave, make sure to only do short intervals and mix in between. Once the chocolate is runny, dip half of the cookies in the dark chocolate. Put on a cooling rack and sprinkle with Christmas sprinkles before the chocolate cools down too much as the sprinkles won't stick otherwise.
And there we have it, we're done! I hope you enjoy baking these cookies and happy holidays! :)
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