Gingerbread Spritz Cookies

Gingerbread Cookies are a traditional Christmas cookie that is always a hit. A classic Spritz cookie with all the spicy flavors of a traditional gingerbread cookie.

Spritz cookies are perfect for gift giving or a cookie swap when you need to make a large number of cookies in a short amount of time.

Instead of rolling and cutting gingerbread cookies this year you can use a cookie press to make bite size Spritz cookies packed full of gingerbread flavor that melt in your mouth.

Ingredients

To find the recipe ingredient amount scroll down to the printable recipe card.

• unbleached all-purpose flour
• salt
• gingerbread spices: ground nutmeg, ground cinnamon, ground cloves, ground ginger
• baking powder
• unsalted butter, softened
• white granulated sugar
• large egg
• dark molasses
• honey
• pure vanilla extract: I always use my homemade vanilla when baking.

Cookie Glaze Ingredients

• confectioners sugar
• water
• White Sparkling Sugar (optional for decorating)

Step by Step Directions

Prep: Preheat the oven to 400 F. degrees.

Step 1: In a medium bowl combine the flour, salt, baking powder, ground nutmeg, ground cinnamon, ground cloves and ground ginger. Use a whisk to evenly blend the gingerbread spices into the flour making sure there are no visible streaks of the spices.

Step 2: In a large bowl beat the softened butter until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Add the sugar to the bowl and cream the sugar and butter together until blended together very well.

This should take two to three minutes if your butter was properly softened. It will take longer if it was not.

Step 3: Add the egg, molasses, honey and vanilla to the bowl and beat for 2 minutes to combine.

Step 4: Slowly add the dry ingredients to the bowl of wet ingredients. Adding about a third of the dry ingredients at a time.

Beat the flour mixture into the butter mixture until completely incorporated and there are no streaks of the flour visible.

Do not over beat the dough or the Spritz cookies will be tough.

Step 5: Fit a cookie press disk on your cookie press. Fill the barrel of the press with cookie dough using a spoon to force any air pockets to fill with dough.

I used the Impress! Metal Cookie Press along with the optional Gingerbread 8 Disk Set to make the gingerbread house, and the narrow Christmas tree shaped cookies. The snowflake cookie disk came in the Impress cookie press kit.

Place the handle on the cookie press. Press the Gingerbread Spritz cookies out onto an ungreased aluminum bake sheet or cookie sheet.

Step 6: Bake the cookies for 8 to 10 minutes or until lightly golden along the edges.

Allow the cookies to cool on the baking sheet 5 minutes before transferring them to a wire cooling rack to cool completely. Use a very thin metal spatula to carefully remove the warm cookies from the baking sheet.

Cool the cookies on the cooling rack completely before storing or decorating. The cookies should be stored in an airtight container to keep them fresh.

How To Decorate Spritz Cookies with a powdered sugar glaze

Turn plain Spritz cookies into the talk of the dessert table by decorating them with a simple powdered sugar glaze and sparkling sugar.

Cookie glaze decorating supplies: Baked and cooled cookies, powdered sugar glaze, sprinkles or sparkling decorating sugar, cookie sheet, and a wire cooling rack.

1. Mix 3 cups of powdered sugar with 3 tablespoons of cool water. Use a metal whisk to break up the clumps of sugar. Mix until the sugar glaze is smooth and lump free.
2. Dip the front decorative side of one cookie at a time into the powdered sugar glaze. Use a fork or candy dipping tool flip the cookie over and lift it from the glaze. Gently tap the tool or fork on the edge of the bowl allowing the excess glaze to drip off the cookie and fall back into the bowl.
3. Place the glazed cookie top side up on a wire rack to harden. Once the glaze on the top of the cookie has set up you can transfer the cookies to a parchment lined cookie sheet to harden completely.

Making Spritz Cookie Tips

• Spritz Cookie Presses: All Spritz Cookie Presses are not created equally. I own three and each one has its pros and cons.
• Spritz Cookie Disks: Unfortunately the disks that come with each cookie press will probably not work with another brand of cookie press. This is why I own three different brands.
• Why use aluminum baking sheets? The soft and buttery spritz cookie dough will cling to an aluminum pan unlike a slick non stick baking sheet.
• Pressing Spritz cookies: expect cookie failures. Each time you reload the cookie press the first few cookies will not be perfectly shapes. Just remove the cookie dough from the tray and return it to the bowl of dough.
• Baking: Bake the cookies only until the outer edges are a light golden brown. Use a thin metal spatula to transfer hot cookies to a cooling rack. Thick plastic spatulas may break the tender warm cookies.
• Decorating Spritz cookies: Spritz cookies taste delicious on their own. You do not need to decorate these buttery cookies to enjoy them. But if you want to serve a tray of pretty decorated cookies you can easily decorate them with a sugar glaze and sparkly sugar or sprinkles.

Recipe FAQs

Expert Recipe Tips

• Butter: Take the butter out of the refrigerator a couple of hours before you plan to bake. If it is very cold in your kitchen take it out even earlier. The butter should be very soft. Cut the butter into pats to make it easier to beat.
• Vanilla Extract: I used my homemade vanilla extract. Check out how I have been making a never ending batch of vanilla extract after buying the vanilla beans once. More about the cost of vanilla and how I have saved so much money.
• Room temperature eggs: when a recipe calls for a room temperature egg you should remove the egg from the refrigerator a couple of hours before using it.
• Ground cinnamon: I like to save money but there are certain things like spices I won't cut corners on. Buy a decent brand of ground cinnamon.
• Ground cloves : The price of ground cloves seem to have sky rocketed in recent years. If you have a grinder buy the whole cloves and grind them yourself.
• Spritz cookie dough should be very soft but not sticky so the dough can be squeezed through the cookie press and hold its shape.

More Spritz Cookies

Make some classic Spritz Cookies for the holiday season, cookie exchange or friends and family.

Email questions or recipe requests to flouronmyface@gmail.com. Follow me on Pinterest, YouTube, Instagram and Facebook.