Chef Klaus
Aachener Printen
Aachen's Advent biscuit is dark, hard, and spiced, with beet syrup doing the deep work and a closed tin finishing what the oven only starts.
Culinary Explorer
A cooking platform built around craft, culture, and the stories behind what we eat.
Springerle
Created by
The old Swabian Christmas cookie lives or dies before it bakes: dry the stamped dough overnight, and the picture stays sharp while the pale foot lifts underneath.
Pastries & Cookies
German
Christmas
Make Ahead
Holiday
1 hr
Active Time
18 min cook•P1DT1H18M total
Yield40 to 50 cookies
Springerle sits deep in the Advent tin, especially in Swabia and Baden, where the carved mould matters almost as much as the dough. It is a white anise cookie, stamped with pictures, dried overnight, and baked pale. Not golden. Pale. If you want brown Christmas spice, bake Lebkuchen. This one is ivory, hard at first, and better after it rests.
The regions argue in the small ways that matter. Swabia keeps them thick and high, with whole anise underneath the dough. Baden and Alsace often go a little thinner, and some kitchens flavour the dough with ground anise or anise oil instead. I like the seed underneath. It perfumes the cookie from below and leaves the face clean, which is where the mould has done its work. Im Norden anders, im Süden anders, and here we are firmly in the south-west.
The step that decides everything is the drying. Stamp the dough sharply, cut it, then leave the cookies uncovered overnight. The surface skin sets around the picture, so when the heat comes from below, the bottom rises into a little foot and the carved face does not blur. Bake too hot and you brown the top before the foot forms. Skip the drying and you get a sweet biscuit with a smudged face. Das braucht seine Zeit.
These are not last-minute cookies. Make them before the feast, stack them in a tin with a piece of apple or bread for a day if they need softening, and let the anise settle. Nicht aus dem Glas, not from a packet mix. Eggs, sugar, flour, anise, patience. That is the whole cupboard.
Springerle moulds are documented in German-speaking regions from at least the 14th century, when carved wood and clay forms carried biblical scenes, coats of arms, animals, and feast-day images into holiday baking. The cookie became strongest in Swabia, Baden, Franconia, Alsace, and Switzerland, regions tied to the medieval spice trade that made anise a Christmas baking flavour rather than an everyday one. The name is commonly linked to the way the cookie springs up from the base during baking, forming the pale little foot under the dried stamped picture.
The technique, the tradition, and the story behind every dish.
Discover Culinary ExplorerIngredients
large eggs
Quantity
4
at room temperature
icing sugar
Quantity
500g
sifted, plus more for dusting
lemon zest
Quantity
1 teaspoon
finely grated
fine salt
Quantity
1 pinch
kirsch or milk
Quantity
1 tablespoon
baking ammonia
Quantity
1/2 teaspoon
crushed fine
plain flour
Quantity
500g
plus more for rolling
whole anise seeds
Quantity
2 tablespoons
| Ingredient | Quantity |
|---|---|
| large eggsat room temperature | 4 |
| icing sugarsifted, plus more for dusting | 500g |
| lemon zestfinely grated | 1 teaspoon |
| fine salt | 1 pinch |
| kirsch or milk | 1 tablespoon |
| baking ammoniacrushed fine | 1/2 teaspoon |
| plain flourplus more for rolling | 500g |
| whole anise seeds | 2 tablespoons |
Equipment Needed
- •Carved Springerle mould or rolling pin
- •Stand mixer or hand mixer
- •Rolling pin
- •Soft pastry brush
- •Parchment-lined baking sheets
- •Metal cookie tin
Instructions
- 1
Beat eggs and sugar
Beat the eggs and sifted icing sugar for 10 to 12 minutes, until the mixture is thick, pale, and falls from the whisk in a slow ribbon. This long beating dissolves the sugar and builds the fine structure that lets the cookie rise cleanly instead of cracking at random.
- 2
Season the dough
Stir in the lemon zest and salt. Dissolve the baking ammonia in the kirsch or milk, then mix it in. Crush the baking ammonia fine before it goes near the bowl, because a hard grain leaves a bitter pocket in the cookie and nobody at the Advent table asked for that.
- 3
Work in flour
Add the flour in stages and mix until you have a firm, smooth dough that is no longer sticky but still rolls without cracking. Stop as soon as it comes together. Too much extra flour makes Springerle dry before they have had the decency to age.
- 4
Roll and stamp
Dust the board and mould lightly with flour, then roll the dough about 1cm thick. Press the Springerle mould straight down with steady pressure, lift it cleanly, and cut the shapes apart. Do not rock the mould. Rocking smears the carved lines, and those lines are the point of the cookie.
Use a soft brush to clear flour from the carved mould between batches. Flour packed into the cuts gives you a dull picture instead of a sharp one. - 5
Dry overnight
Scatter the anise seeds over parchment-lined trays and set the stamped cookies on top. Leave them uncovered at cool room temperature for 12 to 24 hours, until the surface feels dry and set. This skin locks the picture in place, so the bottom can lift into its foot while the face stays pale and sharp.
- 6
Bake pale
Bake at 150C for 15 to 18 minutes, one tray at a time, until the cookies have risen from the base and the bottoms are just faintly coloured. Runter mit der Temperatur. If the tops go golden, the oven is too hot and the old white cookie has turned into something else.
- 7
Age in tins
Cool the Springerle completely, then pack them in a tin and leave them at least one week before serving. They start hard, then the texture settles and the anise moves through the crumb. If they stay too hard, add a small piece of apple or bread to the tin for one day, then remove it before it brings mould with it.
Chef Tips
- •Use a proper Springerle mould with a clear, deep carving. A shallow stamp gives a shallow picture, and no amount of prayer in the oven fixes that.
- •Baking ammonia is traditional here because it lifts a low-moisture cookie cleanly and bakes off. Do not taste the raw dough after it goes in. The smell disappears in the oven if the cookies are fully baked.
- •Keep the cookies pale. Springerle are judged by the white face, the clean picture, and the little foot underneath, not by a brown edge.
- •Store them in a metal tin, not an airtight plastic box. A tin lets the texture settle without trapping too much moisture.
Advance Preparation
- •Stamp and dry the cookies 12 to 24 hours before baking; this rest is the main technique and should not be rushed.
- •Bake Springerle one to three weeks before Christmas. They improve in a tin as the anise settles and the hard bite softens slightly.
- •If the cookies are too firm near serving, place a small piece of apple or bread in the tin for 24 hours, then remove it.
Frequently Asked Questions
Nutrition Information
1 serving (about 25g)
Calories
95 calories
Total Fat
1 g
Saturated Fat
0 g
Trans Fat
0 g
Unsaturated Fat
0 g
Cholesterol
17 mg
Sodium
10 mg
Total Carbohydrates
21 g
Dietary Fiber
0 g
Sugars
11 g
Protein
2 g
Where cooking meets culture.
Culinary guides, cultural storytelling, and the editorial depth that makes cooking meaningful.
Discover Culinary ExplorerMore from Weihnachtsbäckerei & Plätzchen
Browse the full collection
Chef Klaus
Bethmännchen
Frankfurt's Advent marzipan ball is small, pale gold, and exacting: real almond paste, rosewater, three almond halves pressed on firmly, then a short bake for gloss.
Chef Klaus
Engelsaugen
A cold Mürbeteig ball, one clean hollow, and a spoon of tart jelly: Engelsaugen are Advent cookies that fail only when the dough gets warm.
Chef Klaus
Florentiner
Florentiner are Advent tin work: almond lace held together by cream caramel, baked thin because thick turns chewy, then brushed with dark chocolate underneath.