My mom once bought a cookie press when I was a kid and I swear we tried using it multiple times to no avail. We could just NOT get the cookies to actually stick to the pan, so we ended up with a huge glob of dough stuck to the bottom of the cookie press tube — and no cookies.
This experience scared me off from cookie presses for decades to come. I really just thought it was a “skill” I wouldn’t be able to master, or that all cookie presses were a sham. BUT I finally got my hands on an OXO cookie press and WOW. It was gifted to me for a partnership, and it’s not the cheapest option out there at around $33, but man does it work, and work well!!
I’ve been going to town on spritz cookies for the past couple of weeks and they are so fun to make. The click of the cookie press is sooo satisfying and I love that they look like they took forever (when they take about 30-40 minutes TOTAL including baking time). You can also dress them up with royal icing, or you can sprinkle them with coarse sugar before baking, or you could even dip them in chocolate after they cool — there are SO many possibilities.
I know it sounds like I’m being paid to write this but I’m not — I am genuinely so pleased with this little gadget and will be publishing some variants that I’ve been making, but first we have to start with the classic spritz cookie.
I tested a few recipes and found them to mostly be too sandy and crumbly — almost powdery. Most recipes use cake flour, egg yolks, and/or powdered sugar, both of which I found to give the cookies too much tenderness. Instead, I was looking for a cookie with a little more snap and bite — closer to the Danish butter cookies you find in those tins before they meet their ultimate fate as sewing kits. I’m not sure if this is traditionally what a spritz cookie eats like, but to be totally honest, my real goal has always been to just make a homemade version of those Danish butter cookies…so maybe look elsewhere if you’re looking for something super authentic.
After a few rounds of testing I came up with this base recipe. It’s not necessarily earth shattering — I mean how revolutionary can a recipe that uses like 5 ingredients be? — but it meets all the specifications I wanted in a spritz cookie: buttery, crisp, and perfect with a cup of hot tea or coffee.
Once you’ve tried this recipe, you can mess around with some of these variants, too:
Spritz Cookies (with a crisp/snappy texture)
Equipment
- 1 cookie press I recommend OXO brand, which is the best one I've tried and not too expensive!
- 1 stand mixer or hand mixer
Ingredients
- 1 cup salted butter European style if possible
- 110 g granulated sugar
- 1 egg
- 1/2 tsp Diamond brand kosher salt half as much if using table salt
- 275 g all purpose flour
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 325F.
- Add butter, sugar, and salt to the bowl of a stand mixer and beat on low to combine, then turn the speed to medium and beat for 3-4 minutes until the mixture is light and fluffy, stopping once to scrape down the bowl.1 cup salted butter, 1/2 tsp Diamond brand kosher salt, 110 g granulated sugar
- Add the egg and continue beating for another 1-2 minutes until the egg is well combined, once again stopping to scrape the sides and bottom of the bowl mid way.1 egg
- Add the flour and on low speed mix once more to combine.275 g all purpose flour
- Immediately transfer to your cookie press (no need to chill the dough). Press cookies onto an ungreased, unlined baking sheet. Though I typically prefer uncoated baking sheets for spritz cookies I find I get a better consistency with nonstick trays — though either should be fine!
- Bake for 12-15 minutes until the cookies are set and the edges are just starting to brown.
- Fully cool cookies on baking sheet before icing.