Spritz cookies are one of the best Christmas cookies to make. These buttery cookies melt in your mouth.
Christmas Spritz Cookies are a favorite Christmas cookie because they taste so good.
These almond flavored butter cookies melt in your mouth.
You can color the dough and make red and green cookies topped with a candied cherry. Bake a double batch and share them with friends.
Spritz Cookie Ingredients
Holiday spritz cookies are made with basic butter cookie ingredients.
You will need flour, powdered sugar, unsalted butter, one egg, a dash of salt and pure vanilla and almond extract.
The almond extract it what give spritz cookies their amazing flavor.
To make red and green colored spritz cookies you will also need red and green food coloring.
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I used gel food coloring which gives the best vibrant colors.
I topped these Christmas cookies with red or green candied cherries to stick with the holiday theme and to make a pretty presentation.
If you don't have candied cherries you could decorate the spritz cookies with a drizzle of icing and colored sprinkles.
Let's Bake Cookies
- Preheat the oven to 165 degrees F.
- In a medium sized bowl whisk the flour and salt together. Set aside.
- In a separate large mixing bowl beat the butter until smooth and creamy.
- Add the powdered sugar to the bowl with the butter and beat until light and fluffy. This will take anywhere from 2 to 5 minutes depending on how soft the butter is.
- Add the egg, vanilla and almond extract to the bowl with the beaten butter and sugar. Beat for 2 minutes or until the ingredients are completely combined.
- Add the flour to the bowl with the butter mixture. Beat on low until most of the flour is beaten in. Increase to medium and beat until the ingredients are combined. If your mixer starts to strain switch to a wooden spoon and mix until all of the flour is mixed in well. Do not overbeat or the cookies will be tough instead of tender.
Divide the dough into 3 equal portions. Fill the cookie press with one portion of uncolored cookie dough and set aside.
Place the two remaining portions of cookie dough into small bowls. Add 5 drops of food coloring to each bowl.
Mix the dough with the food coloring until there are no streaks of color in the dough and all of the food coloring is mixed in well. Set aside.
Press the uncolored cookie dough onto a cookie sheet leaving about 2 inches between the pressed cookies.
Add a candied cherry to the center of each cookie. Or bake the cookies without a cherry in the center. Do not over bake the cookies. They should be pale in color. Not browned.
Repeat with the red and green cookie dough changing the shape of the disk used for another shape of cookie.
Recipe FAQs
Christmas Spritz Cookies can be decorated by coloring the cookie dough with gel food coloring, topped with a candied cherry and drizzling with icing. You can also decorated them by sprinkling holiday sprinkles over the icing before it hardens.
Recipe Expert Tips
- Mixing bowl. Use a large deep bowl to beat the butter and sugar to prevent the ingredients from flying all over the place.
- Butter: Room temperature butter is best when creaming butter with sugar.
- Extracts: Always use pure extracts for the best flavor.
- Food coloring: Gel food coloring give the best vibrant colors in cookie dough. The baked cookies will be a slightly lighter color than the raw dough.
- Using a cookie press: Practice makes perfect when it comes to using a cookie press. You may have to practice a few times before you get the hang of it. Just scrape the dough up and use it again if the cookies aren't formed properly. I used the OXO Cookie Press.
- Cookie Press Disks: I used the snowflake disk for the red cookies, the buttercup disk for the white cookies and the sunflower disk for the green cookies.
- Cookie sheets: Uncoated aluminum cookie sheets work best for Spritz cookie.
- Cleaning the cookie press: Wash the cookie press well with soap and warm water between uses when switching to the red and green colored dough. If any of the colored dough is left inside there will be streaks of the color on the next batch of cookies that you press.
- Baking the cookies: Do not over bake the cookies. Spritz cookies should be pale or very light golden on the bottom when done.
- Powdered sugar icing: When mixing the icing ingredients make sure the icing is thick enough so it does not get runny or the icing will run off the cookie instead of leaving a pretty drizzle on top.
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Christmas Spritz Cookies
Equipment
- Spritz Cookie Press
- Baking Sheets
- Wire Cooling Racks
- Piping or plastic baggy
Ingredients
Spritz Cookie Dough
- 2 ¼ cups unbleached all-purpose flour
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- 1 ¼ cups powdered sugar
- 1 cup unsalted butter softened
- 1 large egg
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 teaspoon almond extract
Cookie Decorating Ingredients
- 1 cup powdered sugar
- 2 tablespoon water plus a teaspoon if needed
- ⅛ teaspoon almond extract
- 5 drops green food coloring gel works best
- 5 drops red food coloring gel works best
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 365 F. degrees .
- Whisk the flour and salt together in a bowl, set aside.
- In a large bowl beat the butter and powdered sugar.
- Add the egg, vanilla and almond extract to the bowl.
- Beat until combined well.
- Add the flour to the bowl of butter mixture and beat until combined. Switch to a wooden spoon if the batter gets too thick for your mixer.
- Divide the dough into three equal portions.
- Fill a cookie press with one portion of the dough and fit a metal disk on the end.
- Add the red food dye to one portion of dough and the green to the remaining portion of cookie dough. Mix the coloring in well with no uneven streaks of color. Set aside until needed.
- Press the uncolored Spritz cookie dough onto a cookie sheet leaving about 2 inches between each cookie.
- Place the cookie sheet in the refrigerator while you press the remaining Spritz cookies.
- Bake the cookies in the preheated oven for 8 to 10 minutes.
- Remove the baked cookies from the oven and place the cookie sheet on a wire cooling rack. Cool for 8 minutes then transfer the cookies to the cooling rack to cool completely before icing.
Make the Decorating Icing
- Mix the powdered sugar, 2 tablespoons of water and almond extract in a small bowl. Mix well. If needed add a half to one teaspoon more water until the icing will drizzle slowly from the spoon.
- Pour the icing into a piping bag or a plastic baggie. Twist the top and secure with a rubber band. Cut the very end of the tip off making a small hole. Squeeze the bag to see how the icing flows. If the hole is too small snip another piece off.
- Drizzle the icing over each cookie making a zig zag pattern. Leave the cookies undisturbed until the icing hardens.
- Store the cookies in an air tight container to keep fresh.
- Makes 3 dozen cookies.
Video
Notes
- Mixing bowl. Use a large deep bowl to beat the butter and sugar to prevent the ingredients from flying all over the place.
- Butter: Room temperature butter is best when creaming butter with sugar.
- Extracts: Always use pure extracts for the best flavor.
- Food coloring: Gel food coloring give the best vibrant colors in cookie dough. The baked cookies will be a slightly lighter color than the raw dough.
- Using a cookie press: Practice makes perfect when it comes to using a cookie press. You may have to practice a few times before you get the hang of it. Just scrape the dough up and use it again if the cookies aren't formed properly. I used the OXO Cookie Press.
- Cookie Press Disks: I used the snowflake disk for the red cookies, the buttercup for the white cookies and the sunflower disk for the green cookies.
- Cookie sheets: Uncoated aluminum cookie sheets work best for Spritz cookie.
- Cleaning the cookie press: Wash the cookie press well with soap and warm water between uses when switching to the red and green colored dough. If any of the colored dough is left inside there will be streaks of the color on the next batch of cookies that you press.
- Baking the cookies: Do not over bake the cookies. Spritz cookies should be pale or very light golden on the bottom when done.
- Powdered sugar icing: When mixing the icing ingredients make sure the icing is thick enough so it does not get runny or the icing will run off the cookie instead of leaving a pretty drizzle on top.
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