German Spritz Cookies or Spritzgebäck as they are called in German are a traditional German butter cookie served at Christmastime.
German butter cookies are traditionally made in a round shape, an s shaped or with a spritz cookie press.
Ingredients to make German Spritz Cookies
- softened unsalted butter
- granulated sugar
- ground almonds
- unbleached all purpose flour
- pure vanilla extract
- candied cherries (to make candied cherry butter cookies)
- chocolate chips to make chocolate dipped cookies (optional)
- chopped nuts to make chocolate dipped with nut cookies (optional)
- Christmas Sprinkles (optional)
Before you start
- You will need to grind the almonds before starting the recipe. I like to use a food processor but you could use a blender or a coffee bean grinder.
How to make German Spritz Cookies
Cream the butter in a large bowl. Add the granulated sugar and beat the sugar into the butter until light and creamy.
Next, add the egg and vanilla extract to the bowl and beat for 1 minute.
Add ½ the flour and half of the ground almonds to the bowl.
Beat the flour and ground almonds in to the sugar and butter mixture.
Add the remaining flour and ground almonds and beat until the mixer can no longer handle the thick batter.
Switch to using a wooden spoon and mix until the batter is evenly combined.
Fill a cookie press with dough and press the cookies out onto an ungreased aluminum baking sheet.
Bake in a preheated 350 F. degrees. for 10 to 12 minutes until the edges of the cookies are slightly golden.
Remove cookies from the oven and cool cookies on a baking rack for 5 minutes. After five minutes using a thin metal spatula remove the cookies from the baking sheet and cool completely before decorating.
Recipe FAQs
A German Spritz Cookie recipe is made with ground nuts. The rich and buttery spritz cookie dough can be made with ground almonds, ground hazelnuts or even ground walnuts.
12 Days of Christmas Cookie Recipes
My German Spritz Cookie recipe is part of a 12 Days of Christmas Cookie recipe event.
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More Cookie Recipes from Flour On My Face
More Christmas Cookie Recipes from friends of FOMF
- Walking on Sunshine Recipes: Italian Ricotta Christmas Cookies
- Glenda Embree: Orange Shortbread Cookies
- Fat Dad Foodie: Chocolate Peppermint Cookies
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Basic Cookie Baking Supplies Needed
- My Favorite Christmas Cookie Cutters for cut out cookies.
- Large Baking Sheets: I have 4 of these and they really make baking cookies so much easier.
- Cookie Dough Scoops: This is the secret to making perfectly shaped cookies every time.
- Parchment Paper: Keeps cookies from sticking and over browning. Makes clean up a breeze.
- Wooden Rolling Pin: A good rolling pin is a must for rolling out perfect Christmas cookies every time.
- Cooling Racks: Cookies need to cool and a cooling rack allows air to circulate and helps the hot cookies cool quicker. It also makes drizzling baked cookies with melted chocolate or powdered sugar drizzle easier.
- Thin Metal Spatula: A wide flat metal spatula helps lift the cookies off the baking sheet without damaging the edges and keep the hot cookies from breaking when transferring them to the cooling rack.
- Spritz Cookie Press: A must have for making tradition Spritz Cookies for Christmas.
- Christmas Cookie Boxes: Planning a cookie exchange or love to share your Christmas cookies? Cookie Gift Boxes are perfect to keep the cookies from getting crushed.
Candied Cherry Butter Cookies
German Spritz Cookie dough can be use to make the most amazing buttery cookies that are topped with a candied cherry. These cookies are so good you will have to hide them.
Seriously, I had to hide the candied cherry butter cookies from my husband so I could take some of these pictures.
How to decorate Spritz Cookies
Spritz cookies are delicious and you could eat them any time of the year without decorating them. But since it is Christmastime it is so satisfying to be able to serve a pretty serving platter of gorgeous Christmas cookies.
If you want to decorate these easy to make traditional German butter cookies I have two very simple but amazing ways to decorate Spritz cookies without breaking the band.
Step 1: One way to decorate these butter cookies is to press them out into a flower shape with a Spritz Cookie Press and push a half of a candied cherry down into the middle.
Step 2: Secondly, you can melt a small bowl of chocolate chips and dip one end of the Ribbon Spritz Cookie into the melted chocolate. You can then sprinkle the melted chocolate with chopped nuts or Christmas sprinkles for a festive look.
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German Spritz Cookies Recipe (Spritzgebäck)
Ingredients
- 1 cup 2 sticks unsalted butter softened
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 4 oz almonds finely ground
- 2 ½ cups all-purpose flour
- 1 large egg
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract I used my homemade vanilla extract
- candied cherries optional
- 1 cup chocolate chips or candy melts optional
- ¼ cup chopped nuts optional
- Christmas sprinkles optional
Instructions
- Cream the butter in a large bowl.
- Add the granulated sugar and beat until creamy.
- Add the egg and vanilla extract to the bowl and beat for 1 minute.
- Add ½ the flour and half of the ground almonds to the bowl. Beat the flour and ground almonds in to the sugar and butter mixture.
- Add the remaining flour and ground almonds and beat until the mixer can no longer handle the thick batter.
- Switch to using a wooden spoon and mix until the batter is evenly combined.
- Fill a cookie press with dough and press the cookies out onto an ungreased aluminum baking sheet.
- Bake in a preheated 350 F. degrees. for 10 to 12 minutes until the edges of the cookies are slightly golden.
- Remove cookies from the oven and cool cookies on a baking rack for 5 minutes. After five minutes using a thin metal spatula remove the cookies from the baking sheet and cool completely on a cooling rack.
Video
Notes
- One way to decorate these butter cookies is to press them out into a flower shape with a Spritz Cookie Press and push a half of a candied cherry down into the middle.
- The second way is to melt chocolate chips and dip one end of the ribbon spritz cookie into the melted chocolate. You can then sprinkle the melted chocolate with chopped nuts or Christmas sprinkles for a festive look.
Gail H
Sorry for the obvious question - how do I grind the nuts that fine? Or is that almond flour you can buy?
Arlene Mobley
Hi Gail I used a food processor to grind the nuts. I don't think almond flour would work the same it is ground much finer. You could probably also use a coffee bean grinder.
LB
Hi, is it just 1 egg please? The list of ingredients does not mention egg. Thanks!
Arlene Mobley
Hi Laura yes one egg. Sorry for that. I updated the recipe card.