Spritz

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Every culture that celebrates Christmas invariably has a selection of traditional holiday cookies, some of which are unique to or identified with a particular country or culture. My mother used to get the whole family into baking somewhere around 45-60 different kinds of cookies every holiday season to give to patients, nurses, interns, family and anyone else who looked like they wouldn't refuse a plate of homemade cookies. Many of the cookies were made from traditional recipes her mother gave her from Germany, like the anise cookies she'd have to hide from me since I had a bad habit of stuffing myself sick with them. :) The cookies I thought were rather bland but enjoyed making the most were the spritz cookies since I loved playing with the cookie press. We would either dye the dough green and make wreaths or use coloured sugars and candied fruits to make them into wreaths and otherwise festive symbols.

Spritz cookies are generally claimed to be of Swedish origin although just about every European country has some sort of variation on a simple butter cookie. Even with the spritz cookies, there are as many variations in recipes as there are recipes. Beatrice Ojakangas, the author of many Finnish and Nordic/Scandinavian cookbooks, has a spritz recipe that calls for cake flour that I've used before and found the cookies dull, crumbly and powdery. The closest recipe in the Finnish cookbook I could find is a generic dough called Murotaikina which is then used in a wide variety of cookies. The recipes generally call for baking powder and whole eggs. I've also seen a number of other recipes that use either margarine or shortening which I would never even consider using. They're butter cookies, not crisco or margarine cookies.

Cook's Illustrated this month takes on this abused cookie and comes up with a recipe that is the result of testing all the ingredients and finding the right combination for a buttery, slightly sweet cookie that keeps its shape and doesn't disintegrate before it hits your mouth. The creaming of the butter and sugar together is the essential step since the air pockets created by doing this give the cookie its proper texture. The method for pressing CI used was a pastry bag, but they did test a number of cookie presses and found the Wilton Comfort Grip press to be the best they tried. They do make a strong argument for the pastry bag though since it provides for more creative shapes.

Spritz Cookies

We had the best results baking these cookies one sheet at a time. When reusing a cookie sheet, make sure that it has completely cooled before forming more cookies on it. Unbaked dough can be refrigerated in an airtight container for up to 4 days; to use, let it stand at room temperature until softened, about 45 minutes. Baked cookies will keep for more than a week if stored in an airtight container or zipper-lock bag.

Makes about 6 dozen 1 1/2-inch cookies

• 1 large egg yolk 
• 1 tablespoon heavy cream 
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract 
• 1 cup unsalted butter (2 sticks), softened (about 70 degrees)
• 2/3 cup sugar (about 4-3/4 ounces)
• 1/4 teaspoon table salt 
• 2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour (10 ounces)

1. Adjust oven rack to middle position; heat oven to 375 degrees. In small bowl, beat yolk, cream, and vanilla with fork until combined; set aside.
2. In standing mixer, cream butter, sugar, and salt at medium-high speed until light and fluffy, 3 to 4 minutes. Scrape down bowl with rubber spatula. With mixer running at medium speed, add yolk/cream mixture and beat until incorporated, about 30 seconds. Scrape down bowl. With mixer running at low speed, gradually beat in flour until combined. Scrape down bowl and give final stir with rubber spatula to ensure that no flour pockets remain.
3. If using cookie press to form cookies, follow manufacturer's instructions to fill press; if using pastry bag, follow illustrations 1 through 3 below to fill bag. Press or pipe cookies onto ungreased baking sheets, spacing them about 1-1/2 inches apart. Bake one sheet at a time until cookies are light golden brown, 10 to 12 minutes, rotating baking sheet halfway through baking time. Cool cookies on baking sheet until just warm, 10 to 15 minutes; using metal spatula, transfer to wire rack and cool to room temperature.

almond variation: Grind 1/2 cup sliced almonds and 2 tablespoons flour called for in the spritz recipe until powdery and evenly fine; combine almond mixture with remaining flour. Follow recipe for spritz, substituting 3/4 teaspoon almond extract for vanilla.

lemon variation: add 1 teaspoon lemon juice to yolk/cream mixture in step 1 and add 1 teaspoon finely grated lemon zest to butter along with sugar and salt in step 2.