Butter Spritz Cookies And How To Decorate Them

How to make Butter Spritz Cookies And How To Decorate Them – the best, easy to make, soft, buttery, melt in your mouth holiday cookies made using a Spritz cookie press. Dipped in chocolate and topped with sprinkles.

What are spritz cookies?

Cookies made with butter, sugar, flour and egg, that taste soft, buttery and slightly sweet. Made using a Spritz cookie press with different cookie disk designs, or a piping bag with tip on to create cookie shapes.

Spritz cookies are actually a type of German Christmas cookie made of flour, butter, sugar and eggs called Spritzgeback.

I usually use my OXO press for Spritz cookies.

Spritz cookies can be made in different flavors – plain (butter) cookies, cream cheese cookies, gingerbread, citrus – by adding orange or lemon zest to the dough or chocolate.

You can read more about Spritz cookies and get the recipe for my popular  Chocolate Spritz Cookies here.

What kind of butter to use?

High quality European butter works very well for Spritz cookies. It needs to be at least 80 % fat.

The butter should be at room temperature, soft to the touch, but not too soft or melted.

The butter for Spritz cookies needs to be unsalted. We need the perfect amount of butter flavor and sweetness, this is why salted butter will not work.

Are Spritz cookies the same as butter cookies

You may be asking yourself – Are butter cookies the same as spritz cookies? 

Both butter and spritz cookies are in the same category of soft, buttery, not too sweet, melt in your mouth cookies.

Where the difference comes from is one single thing in the ingredient list. Compare both cookie recipes and you’ll notice that Spritz cookie recipes contain an ingredient that shortbread butter cookies do not. It is an egg.

Yes, the addition of a single egg makes a huge difference. It makes the dough softer, more pliable and very easy to shape into “stable” designs.

Shortbread dough is usually more dry and requires chilling time, before baking.

Spritz cookies can be baked right away. While when I’ve looked at some Spritz cookie recipes, some of them recommend chilling the dough, I’ve found through personal experience, that it makes it harder to pipe and shape the cookies, so I almost never chill it (unless it is way too hot in the room).

Can you freeze dough for spritz cookies?

Yes! Keep in mind that this dough only takes like 15 minutes to make and can be used right away. 

If you decide to make it in advance, refrigerate wrapped in plastic wrap for up to 4 days or freeze for up to 3 months.

If freezing the dough, thaw in the fridge overnight. Before filling the cookie press, make sure the dough is soft enough, because it may not pipe easily and you are risking breaking your press.

Can you add nuts

You can add nuts, but they should be very, very finely chopped, because the dough may not come out of the press easily. What you can do is sprinkle nuts over the piped cookies, before baking.

How long to keep these cookies for?

Keep baked and decorated butter cookies in an air tight container at room temperature for up to 7 days.

Baked, not decorated sugar spritz cookies could be frozen in a single layer in a container or on a cookie sheet for up to 2 months. Defrost at room temperature and consume within 5 days.

I don’t recommend freezing cookies dipped in chocolate, because they will stick most likely during defrosting.

Can you substitute Margarine for butter in Spritz cookies recipes?

While I never use margarine (I know some people do for various dietary reasons), the answer is yes. You can substitute margarine for butter in cookie recipes (and many other recipes) by keeping the same portion.

How to bake – how long, sheets, mats, oven temperature

You need to get a nice, non stick cookie sheet. Any cookie sheet will work, but for best results, use a flat one. This way the walls of the sheet, don’t stop the heat (hot air) reach the cookies evenly and they usually bake faster. But any cookie sheet works for simple cookies like these.

These tiny bite sized melt in your mouth cookies take between 8-10 minutes to bake at 400 F, depending on the type of oven used, baking temperature, moisture of the ingredients, shape of the cookies, type of pan used.

Can you use parchment paper of silicone baking mats like Silpat for these cookies?

When I’ve tried to pipe out cookies, using my OXO Spritz cookie press over parchment paper on a tray, the paper tends to lift up and messes up the created shape. The best way to bake these cookies is on a cookie sheet without any foil or baking paper. They come off easily, after baking. All you need to do it wash and dry the tray before using it for the next batch.

It would be nice, if your cookie sheet is chilled, before you pipe the cookies onto it. Pop it in the fridge for 15 minutes, if you can.

Silicone baking mats also work for making Spritz cookies. They should be cleaned and dried.

How to decorate 

There are several easy ways for decorating Spritz cookies.

The very popular, basic one is to color your cookie dough with gel food coloring. Powdered food color will also work. Make a batch of cookie dough, separate into 3-4 parts and color in different colors.

Pipe out and bake the cookies.

You can add sprinkles to them, before baking.

Another way is to dip the baked and cooled cookies into chocolate (either candy melts, chocolate chips or couverture chocolate, I prefer chocolate, but candy melts can produce nice colors).

Then sprinkle with sprinkles, chocolate shavings or chopped nuts on top of the “drying/setting” chocolate.

You can also just drizzle with melted chocolate, instead of dipping the cookies. Set on a wire rack for the chocolate to harden.

More holiday cookie recipes:

• Chocolate spritz cookies recipe – these are my favorite cookies! Simple to make, perfect for any occasion.
• These Shortbread Cookies from The Endless Meal soft and tender. She uses her mom’s recipe and it is worth checking it out.
• Easy Cream Cheese Spritz Cookie  – soft butter cookie, made with a cookie press.
• Cherry Jam Thumbprint Cookies – easy to make, festive and perfect for Christmas.