Spritz Cookies with no Cookies Press

Spritz cookies without any cookie press, this is what I am presenting to you today. All you will need is a piping bag with a star tip and you should be good to go. In order for it to work, there are two secrets: first the consistency of the dough can be altered by adding milk by the spoonful, and second, in order for the piping bag not to explode, we will fasten it with some scotch tape. Kindly note that you need to find the happy middle between very dense dough, which is hard to pipe and dough that is too loose so the cookies won’t hold their shape. It does require a bit of experimenting until you have the right consistency. I hope that below instructions are helpful.
A spritz cookie is a mix between a sugar cookie and shortbread cookie. This entails that the dough is pretty dense so that it is easy to pipe. The amount of liquid determines how much the cookies will hold their shape and how much you can see that they were piped. One tablespoon already makes all the difference. However, this only holds true for the shape, not so much the taste, so don’t worry if they don’t turn out how you planned, they will still taste good! I recommend chilling them prior baking so that they hold their shape even better. I usually don’t do it, I am too lazy. The second thing to keep in mind is making sure your piping bag is strong, this is achieved by adding a layer of scotch tape just where you can see the tip showing.

Print Recipe

Spritz Cookies with no Cookie Press

Serves: About 2 baking sheets

Prep Time: 30min – Cooking Time: 10min – Total Time: 40min

These spritz cookies do not require a cookie press, you only need a piping bag to create these traditional cookies from Germany.

Ingredients

• 150 grams of butter at room temperature
• 100 grams of icing sugar
• 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract
• 1 egg
• 100 grams of ground almonds
• 200 grams of all-purpose flour
• 200 grams of semi-sweet chocolate
• 1-3 tablespoons of milk

Instructions

1

Cream the soft butter with icing sugar for about 3 minutes until light and fluffy. Add the vanilla extract and egg and mix in for about 30 seconds. Lastly add almonds and flour until combined. Now prepare the piping bag, for this you want to scotch-tape where the tip starts showing outside of the piping bag so that your piping bag is strong enough and does not explode. I used the Wilton M1 tip, any star tip should be OK. Add one tablespoon of milk to the dough and mix until combined. Transfer about one tablespoon of dough to your piping bag and try to pipe half moons onto parchment paper. If this is not possible, move the tablespoon of dough back to the main dough, add another tablespoon of milk and continue trying. Usually in Germany one tablespoon of milk is sufficient, but depending on where you are, you may need more. You still will need some strength to pipe, but it should not be too hard. Once you have the right consistency, pipe half moons on parchment paper. Since they do not contain any leavener, you can pipe them pretty close to each other. If you want, you can chill these in the fridge while the oven is pre-heating.

2

Bake at 180 degrees Celsius for about 10 minutes or until the tips are golden. Let cool and then dunk into melted chocolate. They should cool on parchment paper again. Spritz cookies freeze beautifully, with or without the melted chocolate.