These are my favorite spritz cookies! Using a cookie press, shape this easy buttery cookie dough into intricate shapes and have fun decorating with sprinkles, chocolate, and chocolate chips. No cookie dough chilling required and the cookies freeze and ship wonderfully.
We started my annual 10-day Christmas cookie countdown yesterday with peppermint bark cookies and I have an equally festive classic Christmas cookie recipe for you today.
These are my favorite spritz cookies.
What Are Spritz Cookies?
The base dough is very similar to my sugar cookies, butter cookies, and pinwheel cookies. Each are shaped a different way, and spritz cookies are shaped with a cookie press. They’re buttery and sweet and, with the right recipe, hold their intricate shape when baked. Spritz cookies are also similar to shortbread cookies, but spritz cookies usually contain an egg. Eggs help the spritz cookies hold their shape when baked, so they don’t crumble like shortbread cookies do.
The word “spritz” actually comes from the German word spritzen which means “to squirt.” This refers to squirting or pushing the cookie dough through a cookie press. I don’t know why, but I always associate the word spritz with “spritely” because spritz cookies remind me of something little spritely fairies would eat!
What Is a Cookie Press?
I added a cookie press to my baking tools collection a few years ago. Inside this baking tool is a metal plate with a stenciled shape. A cookie press presses your cookie dough through the metal plate to create beautifully shaped cookies. It’s actually a lot easier than a rolling pin and cookie cutters!
- I recommend this OXO cookie press. This is not a sponsored post; I genuinely love this cookie press. It’s the easiest to use and comes with 12 different shapes you can swap out. Just read the hundreds of positive reviews. It also makes a wonderful holiday gift! I always include it in my annual Holiday Baking Gift Guide.
How to Make Spritz Cookies
This is my favorite recipe for spritz cookies. I love it so much that I published it in my cookbook Sally’s Cookie Addiction. Here’s why this is my favorite:
- Uses very basic ingredients
- 1-bowl recipe: Like snowball cookies, another easy and classic Christmas cookie!
- No dough-chilling required
- Fun to decorate, with no separate icing recipe required: Use sprinkles, chocolate chips, melted chocolate; and try tinting some of the dough a color.
- Freezer-friendly: After thawing, they still taste fresh!
- Ship wonderfully: These cookies hold their shape during the journey! Learn more about how to ship cookies.
The dough comes together in 1 bowl, using a mixer. There is no baking powder or baking soda needed; these buttery spritz cookies are dense, not airy. They hardly spread, so you can fit a bunch onto your baking sheets. Since the cookies are small, you can use 1 batch of dough to make a variety of shapes with your cookie press. You can even tint some of the cookie dough red or green like you see in my pictures!
How Do I Use a Cookie Press?
Each press comes with a set of instructions and the OXO cookie press I recommend is super user-friendly. Select a plate, such as the snowflake shape, and place it in the bottom compartment. After your cookie dough is prepared, spoon it inside the tube. Attach the top of the cookie press to the tube. Hold the cookie press upright, with the bottom pressed against your baking sheet. Press the lever until it clicks and lift up the cookie press. The shaped cookie will be on your baking sheet! *If the cookie dough sticks to the cookie press, use your fingers or a knife to release it and place onto the cookie sheet.
- No Cookie Press? Instead, use a pastry bag fitted with a 1/2-inch (13 mm) open star tip and use my butter cookies recipe, which is this cookie dough with a little milk to help make it pipe-able. 🙂
Can I admit I prefer making these over decorating sugar cookies with royal icing? Ha!!! Spritz cookies are much neater and faster to make, and are festive right out of the oven!
Print
My Favorite Spritz Cookies
- Prep Time: 30 minutes
- Cook Time: 30 minutes
- Total Time: 1 hour
- Yield: 84 bite-size cookies
- Category: Cookies
- Method: Baking
- Cuisine: American
Description
These are my favorite spritz cookies! Using a cookie press, shape this easy cookie dough into intricate shapes and have fun decorating with sprinkles, chocolate, and chocolate chips. No cookie dough chilling required and they freeze and ship wonderfully.
Ingredients
- 1 cup (2 sticks; 230g) unsalted butter, softened to room temperature
- 3/4 cup (150g) granulated sugar
- 1 large egg, at room temperature
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- 1 teaspoon almond extract
- 2 and 1/3 cups (291g) all-purpose flour (spoon & leveled)
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- optional: gel food coloring, sprinkles, chocolate chips, and melted chocolate for decorating
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350°F (177°C).
- Line 2 or 3 large baking sheets with silicone baking mats, or use nonstick baking sheets with no liner. (Do not use parchment paper because the cookie dough, when pressed out of the cookie press, will not adhere to it.) While the oven is preheating, and if your refrigerator or freezer has room, it’s helpful to chill your lined baking sheets. It sounds odd, but dough coming out of the cookie press adheres much better to a cold surface.
- Make the dough: In a large bowl, using a handheld mixer or a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, beat the butter and granulated sugar together on medium-high speed until smooth, about 2 minutes. Add the egg, vanilla extract, and almond extract, and beat on high speed until combined, about 1 minute. Scrape down the sides and up the bottom of the bowl and beat again as needed to combine.
- On low speed, beat in the flour and salt. Turn up to high speed and beat until completely combined.
- Press the dough: Follow cookie press manufacturer’s directions to fit your cookie press with a decorative plate. Scrape some of the dough into your cookie press. Hold the cookie press perpendicular to the cold lined baking sheet and press out the cookies 2 inches (5 cm) apart. If desired, decorate the shaped cookie dough with sprinkles or press a chocolate chip into the center. Note: It’s helpful to lightly brush the shaped cookie dough with water before adding sprinkles—this helps them stick.
- If the cookie dough becomes too soft as you work, chill the shaped cookie dough in the refrigerator for 10 minutes before baking.
- Bake until very lightly browned on the edges, 7–9 minutes.
- Remove from the oven and allow to cool on the baking sheet for 5 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely. If desired, drizzle with melted chocolate.
- Cookies stay fresh in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 1 week.
Notes
- Make Ahead Instructions: You can chill the cookie dough in the refrigerator for up to 4 days before pressing the dough through the cookie press. You can also freeze the cookie dough for up to 3 months; allow to thaw overnight in the refrigerator, then bring to room temperature before continuing with step 5. Baked cookies freeze well for up to 3 months; thaw before serving.
- Special Tools: KitchenAid Stand Mixer | Green Food Coloring | OXO Cookie Press | Silpat Baking Mat | Baking Sheet | Cooling Rack | Red Sanding Sugar | Green Sanding Sugar | Wilton Pearlized Sugar | Christmas Nonpareils
- Almond Extract: Almond extract adds such a wonderful flavor and I don’t recommend skipping it. If desired, you can leave it out completely or add another 1/2 teaspoon of pure vanilla extract in its place. You can also substitute with 3/4 teaspoon peppermint extract, lemon extract, or another flavor extract you enjoy. Adding 1/4 teaspoon of ground cinnamon is delicious too!
- Food Coloring: I tinted 1/4 of the cookie dough green with 1 very tiny drop of green food coloring. I recommend gel food coloring. Use sparingly; 2 drops is plenty for the entire batch.
- No Cookie Press? No problem! Instead, use a pastry bag fitted with a 1/2-inch (13 mm) open star tip and use my butter cookies recipe, which is this cookie dough with a little milk to help make it pipe-able.
Keywords: spritz cookies
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My cookies seemed to spread and flatten out a bit. I followed the recipe exactly. Any suggestions?
Hi Bonnie, thank you for trying this recipe. If you ever try this recipe again, make sure your butter is cool at room temperature— that’s the usual culprit behind cookies over-spreading. You can also chill the shaped cookies in the freezer before they go into the oven. The colder the shaped dough, the less they will over-spread. Sorry for the trouble!
I will try chilling them before baking. Thanks! Also wondering if there’s a modification to the recipe for making them with cream cheese that you can recommend?
We haven’t tested a cream cheese version of these exact cookies, but we do love these cream cheese sugar cookies!
I have just used this for my first ever attempt at a cookie press and I’m very happy with the result! I followed the recipe exactly for my first time but looking forward to experimenting with other flavours etc in future. Thank you for a great recipe! One happy Aussie mum (and family) here.
★★★★★
why, oh why, do you give 5-6 pages of “info”, but not how many it will make?
Hi Marthena, you can find the yield for this recipe (and all of our recipes) at the top of the gray recipe box. You can scroll down to find the recipe box or use the pink “Jump to Recipe” box at the top of the page. This recipe yields 84 bite-size cookies. Thank you!
I notice you are using a silpat for the butter spritz cookies, and that is what I would have used too. All the recipes I read said ungreased pan with no silpat. Have you noticed a difference at all?
Hi Shelley, We recommend a silicone baking mat because they grip onto the bottom of your cookies, preventing the cookies from spreading too much. These mats also promote even browning. Let us know if you give these cookies a try!
I made these last night and they are so good. We can’t stop eating them. I baked them on baking mats, for 10 minuted, they barely browned. I put mini chocolate chips on some of them and sprinkles on the others. Delicious!
★★★★★
I made these today and they were delicious! I love the way you decorated them. Just wondering if I put a chocolate chip in the center of the flower before baking as you did—will the chocolaté keep its shape? I’m afraid it will melt.
★★★★★
Hi Robin, Yes it will! Most chocolate chips contain stabilizers that help them to maintain their shape (think of the chips in chocolate chip cookies). This is the reason why they shouldn’t be used for melting chocolate, but are perfect in things like cookies.
These were so say and delicious! I had put off using my new cookie press because of horror stories. Tried this recipe and it was a breeze! Great directions. These have been added to the “must haves” at Christmas.
★★★★★
This recipe worked really well for me! I have never made spritz cookies before, so I was a little nervous about making them, but they were perfect! I think I added too much flour, so the cookies didn’t stick to the pan. I added some water to the dough and tried again, and they stuck!
If you are having trouble with the release, I would say keep the press on the pan for a couple of seconds after to click the cookie out and then lift it straight up. You would think that you should lift up at you press down, but it really only works if you click it, wait, and then lift up the press.
★★★★★
Thanks for the tip. I’m going to be trying these tonight.
Perfect recipe!!
I weigh all my ingredients and followed the recipe to a T. I did not use a silicone mat or parchment paper. The cookies went directly onto the metal cookie sheet. I do recommend to follow Sally’s tip “after you get your cookies into the sheet, place them in the fridge for 10 min before baking”
For spritz cookies your butter really needs to be room temperature. Like, super soft butter left out on your counter all day room temperature.
I use a vintage cookie press, which sometimes is finicky with recipes but not with this one. I also had no issues with burning. My oven runs a little cold so I baked closer to 10 minutes.
★★★★★
This Spritz Cookie was terrible. I am going to use one I found that contained Baking Powder. I chilled these and they still came out flat. I am an experienced baker, so I questioned this recipe from the get go. I should have followed and added BP.
★
Spritz dough should never be chilled. And I’ve never used baking powder in them, either. I’ve been making spritz cookies for over 40 years.
Didn’t love this recipe -I’ve tried others that were better.Also the only way you’re getting 84 bite size cookies is in your dreams. Using a standard cookie press this barely made 4 dozen.
★★★
Cookie tastes good, but burns on the bottom super easily. Used standard cookies sheets with parchment and followed the recipe exactly. Baked for exactly 10 minutes and every cookie is black on the bottom. And they were just in the middle of my oven.
★★