German Spritz Cookies

German Spritz Cookies

German Spritz Cookies Recipe – Spritzgebäck

German Spritz Cookies are called Spritzgebäck in Germany. To make the German Spritz Cookies, you could use a cookie press or a manual meat grinder with an attachment for cookies. The meat grinders come in plastic click here or the old-fashioned in cast iron click here, as you can see in the middle of the picture. The attachment for making the cookies can also be ordered without the meat grinder. For the meat grinder of a kitchen aid click here, for a manual meat grinder size 5 click here.  

Cookie Press chocolate cookies

Ingredients for German Spritz Cookies:

  • 375 g (13 oz) of soft butter
  • 250 g (9 oz) of sugar
  • 250 g (9 oz) of flour
  • 250 g (9 oz) of potato starch OR Dr. Oetker Gustin OR corn starch (potato starch is in almost every grocery store available and can be found in the aisle of kosher products or in the aisle of baking products).
  • 125 g (4.5 oz) of almond meal OR hazelnut meal
  • 2 pouches of vanilla sugar OR 2 teaspoons of vanilla extract
  • pinch of salt
  • 100 g (3.5 oz) of dark chocolate

Preparation of the cookies:

Use your handheld electric mixer and beat the butter. Add sugar, vanilla sugar (or vanilla extract) and a pinch of salt to it. Mix flour with potato starch and sift over the butter mixture. Add the almonds and knead it all with your hands until the dough is nice and smooth. If the dough is too soft, place it for about one hour in the refrigerator. If it is still too soft, after you take it out, add some more flour mixed with potato starch to it.

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Fill your cookie press with the dough. Using the star insert, start to form letters or numbers. You also could use any other insert (with an opening in the center) to form other shapes.

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Decorating German Spritz Cookies

Or use a meat grinder that comes with a special attachment as I did. 

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Preheat your oven to 180°C – 190°C (356°F – 375°F). Place the German Spritz Cookies on a baking sheet on the middle rack and bake them between 7-9 minutes. Let them cool down a little on the sheet before placing them on the cooling rack.

Baking German Spritz Cookies

Heat up your chocolate in a bain-marie (water bath) and then fill a decorating bag with the melted chocolate. Using the small open tip of the bag, decorate the German Spritz Cookies as you like. You could also use a brush to decorate the cookies with chocolate. Store the cookies in a tin box. Find more of Oma’s traditional German Christmas cookies recipes here.

Serving German Spritz Cookies