Classic Spritz Cookies

Recipe Ingredients

You probably already have all the ingredients you'll need to make these Classic Spritz Cookies.

Butter: Adds a rich, buttery flavor that is essential to the cookie's taste, and the high fat content creates a tender, melt-in-your-mouth texture.

Sugar: Provides sweetness and helps to create a slightly crisp edge while maintaining a soft interior.

All-Purpose Flour: Gives the cookies bulk and structure.

Other Ingredients You’ll Need: Salt, egg, almond extract, food color, currants, raisins, candies, colored sugar, nuts, and candied fruit.

How To Make Classic Spritz Cookies

We will show you step-by-step how to make these Christmas spritz cookies. So, no matter if this is your first time or you’re an experienced baker and master at using a cookie press, the results will be beautiful and tasty every time. Refer to the full recipe for all the specifics, but here’s a sneak peek on how to make this recipe for spritz cookies.

1. Make the Dough

This spritz cookie recipe starts by mixing butter, sugar, and egg with the dry ingredients. It’s best to use a recipe that’s been well-tested for cookie presses. The dough, which is quite buttery, needs to be soft and just the right consistency to easily press through the design plates.

2. Fill the Cookie Press

A cookie press is a pastry tool that forms cookies by pressing the cookie dough through a metal plate with holes. The shape of the hole is what creates the spritz cookies designs. Using a cookie press is what gives spritz cookies their unique look.

Fill the cylinder of the cookie press with the dough and follow the manufacturer’s direction to press the cookies onto an ungreased cookie sheet. The best spritz cookie recipe will make enough dough to give you the chance to change the metal plates of the cookie press to get creative with your designs.

3. Decorate the Cookies

Before baking, if desired, sprinkle currants, candies, colored sugar, or other toppings onto your cookies.

4. Bake

Bake the cookies and cool them on a rack. Enjoy!

How to Decorate Spritz Cookies

One of the easiest ways to add a little pizzazz to your spritz cookie recipe is to simply add a few drops of gel food coloring to the dough as you’re mixing it together. Christmas trees are a popular shape for a traditional spritz cookies recipe, and green food coloring in the dough will bring those cookies to life. After the dough is pressed out onto the cookie sheet, you can “decorate” your trees with colorful candy ornaments.

Decorate with nuts, dried fruit, colored sugar, or sprinkles onto or pressed into the unbaked cookies once they’re on the cookie sheet. If you’d like to add some decoration to the cookies after they’ve baked, just dab a bit of corn syrup onto the cookie and press edible glitter, red cinnamon candies, nonpareils, currants, or any other decoration you desire. Melted dark, milk, semisweet, or white chocolate can also be drizzled over baked cooled cookies.

Different Types of Spritz Cookies

While these Classic Spritz Cookies are a great go-to spritz cookie recipe, the world of spritz cookies is large with many different varieties. Here are some to have in your back pocket.

Chocolate Spritz Reindeer Cookies: For some fun Christmas spritz cookie magic, these cookies are made with chocolate cookie dough with pretzels and candies for the ears and eyes.

Snickerdoodle Spritz Cookies: If you’re looking for the iconic cinnamon sugar cookie flavor of a snickerdoodle, but you also want the “wow” factor of a traditional spritz cookie recipe.

Our Classic Spritz Cookie recipe is so versatile that you can change their flavor with the simple addition of one or two extra ingredients.

Spice Spritz: Stir in 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon, 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg, and 1/4 teaspoon ground allspice with the flour.

Chocolate Spritz: Stir 2 ounces unsweetened baking chocolate, melted and cooled, into the butter-sugar mixture. Omit food color.

Eggnog Spritz: Substitute rum extract for the almond extract or vanilla for a fun holiday twist.

Storing Your Spritz Cookies

While you may not have too many leftovers from this spritz cookies recipe, you’ll want to store what you do have either at room temperature or in the freezer. We don’t recommend refrigerating them, (blame it on the butter) they will just get dry. 

Room Temperature

Spritz cookies are best kept at room temperature. Place cookies in between layers of waxed paper to protect decorations and frosting and store in an airtight container. The cookies will stay fresh for up to 4 days.

Freezer

Arrange the cookies in a single layer on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Place the baking sheet in the freezer for about 1 to 2 hours, or until the cookies are firm to the touch. Then transfer them to an airtight container. Cookies can be stored for up to 3 months. For the best taste, cookies should be removed from their container to thaw at room temperature before eating.