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This spritz cookie recipe is for buttery and sweet-pressed cookies. They are festive and so fun to make, with all kinds of shapes!
For more perfectly merry cookies to add to your holiday spread, try Peppermint Sugar Cookies and Christmas Sugar Cookies.
We Love These Festive cookies!
This spritz cookie recipe is similar to both Sugar Cookies and Shortbread Cookies. We love handing out these bite-size beauties to our neighbors!
Here are some of the reasons we love these cookies:
- Visually appealing. They are buttery and show off a beautiful intricate design.
- Festive. Butter spritz cookies can be colored and shaped for any season or holiday. We did wreaths and Christmas trees this time!
- Nostalgic. These pressed cookies instantly transport me to my childhood. We made these every year during Christmas.
This is a cookie recipe that always makes it onto our holiday treat plates, along with our Christmas Cookies and Christmas Crack. Give them a try!
Ingredients
- unsalted butter – Be sure to soften the butter, otherwise, you won’t get the creamy, fluffy texture you desire.
- sugar
- egg
- flavoring – Vanilla and almond extract are the traditional flavors of these cookies, but you can experiment and use lemon, orange, peppermint, or rum extract.
- all-purpose flour – Be sure to scoop the flour into the measuring cup and level off. The recipe also works well using 1:1 gluten-free baking flour.
- salt
- gel food coloring – Use gel, not liquid coloring. You only need a couple of drops of the gel, whereas you would need several drops of the liquid which then thins out the dough.
- colorful sprinkles – Add different sprinkles, sparkling sugar, or finely chopped nuts before baking. Drizzle with glaze or melted chocolate after baking.
Using A Cookie Press
- To get the best spritz cookie recipe, I recommend purchasing a cookie press.
- Cookie press alternative. If you don’t have a spritz cookie press, try using a piping bag with different decorative tips, like a star tip. The dough is on the thicker side, so you may want to choose a larger tip and squeeze firmly.
- Pressing tips:
- The biggest tip I can recommend is to use a PLAIN, UNGREASED, COLD cookie sheet. You want the bottom of the cookie to stick to the baking sheet so it won’t get stuck in the cookie press.
- Go ahead and click the cookie press a couple of times to help the dough release easier.
- The dough does not spread much at all, so the shape you pipe out will be the shape of the baked cookie. For this reason, when you pipe out the dough be sure that all parts are touching.
How to Make Spritz Cookies
- PREP. Preheat the oven to 400°F.
- WET INGREDIENTS. Using an electric mixer beat the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy. Add the egg, almond extract, and vanilla extract, and beat until smooth.
- DRY INGREDIENTS. Add the flour and salt to the bowl and stir until combined. It really helps to make sure the cookie dough is about the texture of soft play dough.
- COLOR. Add gel food coloring to the dough if desired.
- PRESS. Add the dough to a cookie press, with the desired shape plate attached. Squirt the cookies onto an ungreased cookie sheet. Decorate with sprinkles, if desired.
- If you try to bake them on a baking sheet that’s greased/lined with parchment paper, or on a silicone mat, the dough will stick to the cookie press instead, and won’t stay on the sheet.
- BAKE. Bake 6-8 minutes, until cooked through, but not browned. Let them cool a little on the cookie sheet before transferring them to a cooling rack.
Variations
You can create variety by using the different shapes that come with the cookie press. Another way is other is to add color and decorations.
- Making colorful cookies. To make more than one color out of a batch of cookies, divide the dough into different bowls. Mix each bowl of dough with the desired color. Clean the cookie press when switching to a new color.
- Note that colored cookies tend to brown more quickly than plain cookies so watch carefully.
Recipe Tips
- Mixing the dough. As important as it is to mix the dough thoroughly in the beginning, it is equally important that you don’t over-mix the dough once you add the flour. Overmixing the dough can cause the gluten to over-activate, resulting in a tougher cookie.
- Give them as gifts. Whether you take them to a neighbor or ship them across the country, they make great gifts.
- Package your cookies in a holiday tin (the Dollar Store and Walmart are great options). Fill the tin with cupcake liners, then stack the cookies in the liners.
- If you decide to ship these to faraway friends, I recommend freezing them and then placing the frozen cookies into the package to ship.
- They also make a pretty addition to holiday cookie trays.
storing info
- Make ahead of time. Make the dough ahead of time and keep it covered in the fridge for up to 4 days. Simply allow it to come to room temperature (30-40 minutes) before pressing and baking.
- Freeze the dough.
- Roll the dough into a log, wrap it with plastic and again with foil, then freeze – OR stamp out the dough into shapes, and place the dough into the freezer.
- Once frozen, place the shaped dough into a freezer-safe bag. The frozen dough can keep for up to 3 months.
- To bake: Allow the dough to thaw to room temperature before baking.
- STORE. Spritz cookies store really well, so they are great for shipping to family and friends who live far away. Keep in an airtight container for 1-2 weeks or in the freezer for up to 3 months.
For more holiday cookies, try:
Spritz Cookie Recipe
This spritz cookie recipe is for buttery and sweet-pressed cookies. They are festive and so fun to make, with all kinds of shapes!
Ingredients
for the cookies:
- 1 cup butter softened
- ½ cup sugar
- 1 egg
- ½ teaspoon almond extract
- ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
- 2¼ cups all-purpose flour
- ¼ teaspoon salt
for decorating:
- gel food coloring
- colorful sprinkles
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 400°F.
- Beat the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy. Add the egg, almond extract, and vanilla extract, and beat until smooth.
- Add the flour and salt to the bowl and mix until combined. Add gel food coloring to the dough if desired.
- Add the dough to a cookie press with the desired shape plate attached. Press the cookies onto an ungreased cookie sheet. Decorate with sprinkles, if desired.
- Bake 6-8 minutes, until cooked through but not browned. Let cool before serving.
Video
Notes
- Make ahead of time. Make the dough ahead of time and keep it covered in the fridge for up to 4 days. Simply allow it to come to room temperature (30-40 minutes) before pressing and baking.
- Freeze the dough.
- Roll the dough into a log, wrap it with plastic and again with foil, then freeze – OR stamp out the dough into shapes, and place the dough into the freezer.
- Once frozen, place the shaped dough into a freezer-safe bag. The frozen dough can keep for up to 3 months.
- To bake: Allow the dough to thaw to room temperature before baking.
- STORE. Spritz cookies store really well, so they are great for shipping to family and friends who live far away. Keep in an airtight conditioner for 1-2 weeks or in the freezer for up to 3 months.
Nutrition
Serving: 1g, Calories: 86kcal, Carbohydrates: 9g, Protein: 1g, Fat: 5g, Saturated Fat: 3g, Polyunsaturated Fat: 0.2g, Monounsaturated Fat: 1g, Trans Fat: 0.2g, Cholesterol: 18mg, Sodium: 59mg, Potassium: 12mg, Fiber: 0.2g, Sugar: 3g, Vitamin A: 164IU, Calcium: 3mg, Iron: 0.4mg
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
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One of my fav Christmas cookies!! Festive, fun, and easy to keep on popping them in your mouth!!!!
What an easy recipe for such a intricate and pretty treat.
Hi Kristyn,
I don’t have a stand mixer or hand mixer so I cream butter and sugar (and just butter itself) using a hand whisk. However, whenever I do so all the butter gets stuck inside the whisk and it’s annoying, but I will never, ever get a stand mixer because they are so expensive and I don’t need it. So any tips on beating butter?
Sorry, I wish I knew. It is annoying, but I just scrape it off with a spatula.
These bring back so many childhood memories! I live this!
Love spritz cookies! So nostalgic!
So fun to make! Easy and fast.🎄💗🎄
Great recipe for a cookie we make every year!!
These are Christmas favorite. Love spritz cookies- they remind me of my childhood.
Sooo buttery and delicious!!
I was searching high and low for a Spritz cookies recipe that reminded me of my grandmother’s cookies and I couldn’t find one… until yours!! Yours was perfect! It tastes just like she made. Thank you so much for allowing me now to reminisce and make “her” cookies