Minnesota’s Classic Spritz Cookies evoke the Danish Butter Cookies whose tins appear in supermarkets at Christmas and in sewing rooms holding buttons and other sewing notions. Crisp, buttery little mouthfuls that are all too easy to overeat.
Recipe source: https://www.bobsredmill.com/recipes/how-to-make/classic-spritz-cookies-minnesota/
Could I have gotten a legit Wilton or similar cookie press? Yes! Did I go with a cheap no-name brand because it’s for only one cookie and I don’t see myself making spritz cookies that often? Also yes.
The eBay seller I ordered the cookie press from seems to be Chinese, with the negative (out of 97% positive rating) comments saying, “this says ships from US but it’s from China” and “they sent me a POS in a beat-up package” or “they canceled my order and refunded because they can’t fulfill it” so we’ll see what happens? *two thumbs up and a hopeful grin*
Take a look at what $12 gets you on eBay:
So, it doesn’t look too bad? Everything fits together and seems to move all right. Join me as I test it with dough and find out if I wasted my money.
So I set the press up, put it down on my parchment-covered cookie sheet, and:
Okay, so there’s a bit of a learning curve…
I finally turned to the internet for “spritz tips” and found that to some people, making proper spritz cookies is as tricky as macarons. There’s flour choice, how much you mix them, whether you stir the flour in by hand or machine, temperature, all that. The main takeaway though, is that to get them to stick, you have to chill the sheets and not use parchment (they had said “ungreased cookie sheet” in the recipe, but I use parchment mainly to keep my cookie sheets clean because I’m lazy about washing them beyond a wipe-off).
But soon we saw the downside of cheap Chinese-made eBay merchandise:
My engineer husband tells me that for a mere 14 cents or so per pin they could have used stainless steel for the pin and bracket, you know, the stress-bearing parts, instead of aluminum which is so soft that my husband used a wire cutter to snip through the remaining pin to remove the handle for me so I could depress the plunger by hand.
You get what you pay for.
Here is where I tried to get my son into things. I feel bad because I see things online about two-year-olds baking with their parents while I’m more like this:
But sprinkles are pretty guaranteed to make a mess, might as well let him make it and feel involved (honestly, he just gets excited whenever the mixer is on and would happily watch it beat all day. I got him the Melissa and Doug wooden mixer and he loves it).
Overall Impressions
Those are classic spritz cookies all right. Buttery, crisp, mildly sweet, so tiny that you find yourself popping them in your mouth like chips… easy to overdo. They do make a pretty cookie for a holiday platter, and you can dress them up with your favorite sprinkles. So dig out that old Royal Dansk tin, tip the buttons out into a gallon bag, wash the tin, and have fun playing with the different dies. Make a game of trying to guess which shape each die will make.
Tips and Suggestions
- Borrow or buy a cookie press of higher quality.
- Chill your pans and don’t grease or use parchment.
Next Time
Ooey, gooey, chocolatey marshmallowy Mississippi Mud Cookies. I’m drooling already.
All photos by Amber Sutton.
Originally published at bakeonthru.wordpress.com