Spritzgebäck

Ingredients

Equipment Needed

• •Large piping bag with 1.5cm closed star nozzle (or a cookie press)
• •Hand mixer or stand mixer with paddle attachment
• •Two baking trays
• •Parchment paper
• •Heatproof bowl for melting chocolate
• •Small saucepan for bain-marie
• •Wire cooling rack

Instructions

1. 1

   Cream the butter

   Beat the butter with the sifted Staubzucker, Vanillezucker, and salt until pale, smooth, and light. This takes three to four minutes with a hand mixer, longer by hand. You want the mixture to look almost white and feel like silk. Powdered sugar instead of granulated is not a shortcut. It dissolves into the butter completely, giving you that fine, sandy texture when the cookies bake. Granulated sugar would make the dough grainy and the cookies would spread.

   The butter should be cool room temperature, about 18°C. If it's too soft, the dough will be slack and won't hold the piped shapes. Press it with your finger: it should give slightly but still feel firm. If your kitchen is warm, work quickly.
2. 2

   Add the egg yolks

   Beat in the egg yolks one at a time, mixing each until fully incorporated before adding the next. The dough will turn a rich, pale gold. Egg yolks without the whites give these cookies their tender, crumbly texture. Whole eggs would add too much liquid and structure, making the cookies cakey instead of short and sandy.

3. 3

   Work in the flour

   Add the flour all at once and mix on low speed just until the dough comes together. Stop the moment the flour disappears. If you overwork the dough the gluten develops, and what should be a cookie that melts in your mouth becomes something you have to chew through. The dough should be smooth, pliable, and slightly cool to the touch. If it feels sticky or soft, wrap it in cling film and refrigerate for fifteen minutes.

   Gretel always said you should be able to smell the butter and vanilla in the raw dough. If you can't, your ingredients aren't good enough. Austrian bakers use real Vanillezucker made with actual vanilla, not vanillin. You can make your own by burying a split vanilla pod in a jar of powdered sugar for a week.
4. 4

   Pipe the cookies

   Preheat your oven to 180°C (160°C fan). Line two baking trays with parchment. Fit a large piping bag with a closed star nozzle (1.5cm wide works well) and fill it half-full with dough. Pipe S-shapes about 7cm long, leaving two centimeters between each. To make rings, pipe circles about 5cm across, overlapping the ends slightly and pressing gently to seal. Hold the bag at a 45-degree angle and apply steady, even pressure. The ridges from the star nozzle should be clean and defined. If the dough squeezes out in blurry lines, it's too warm. Chill it for ten minutes and try again.

   Only fill the piping bag halfway. A bag packed to the top is impossible to control and your hands will warm the dough too fast. Refill as needed. Keep the remaining dough covered and cool while you pipe each tray.
5. 5

   Bake until barely golden

   Bake one tray at a time on the middle rack for 10 to 12 minutes. Watch them carefully after minute eight. You want the ridged edges to turn the palest gold while the body of the cookie stays almost white. Spritzgebäck that brown all over have gone too far and will taste dry instead of buttery. Pull them when you think they need one more minute. They firm up as they cool. Let the cookies rest on the tray for five minutes before moving them to a wire rack.

   Every oven lies. The first tray is your test batch. If the cookies spread and lose their ridges, your dough was too warm or your oven runs hot. If they hold shape but taste raw in the center after 12 minutes, drop the temperature by 10 degrees and add a minute.
6. 6

   Dip in dark chocolate

   Melt the dark chocolate gently in a heatproof bowl set over barely simmering water. The bottom of the bowl should not touch the water. Stir until smooth and glossy, then take it off the heat. Dip one end of each cooled cookie into the chocolate, letting the excess drip back into the bowl. For S-shapes, dip one curve. For rings, dip the bottom half. Lay them on parchment and let the chocolate set completely at cool room temperature. Don't rush this into the fridge or the chocolate will bloom and turn chalky white.

   Use good chocolate with at least 70% cocoa. The bitterness cuts the sweet, buttery cookie perfectly. Cheap chocolate with vegetable fat won't set with a clean snap and it coats the tongue instead of melting cleanly.
7. 7

   Store and serve

   Once the chocolate has set firm, layer the cookies in a tin between sheets of parchment or wax paper. Seal the tin tightly. Spritzgebäck actually improve after a day or two as the butter flavor deepens and the texture softens just slightly. They keep beautifully for three weeks in a cool place, which is exactly why they're perfect for the Weihnachtsbäckerei. You bake them early in Advent and they're still perfect on Christmas Eve. Mahlzeit!

Chef Tips

• •Buy the best unsalted butter you can find. This cookie is 40% butter by weight. Every flavor note in the butter shows up in the finished cookie, good and bad. European-style butter with high fat content (82% or above) makes a real difference here.
• •If you don't have a piping bag, a cookie press (Gebäckpresse) works just as well and gives you even more shapes. The old-fashioned lever presses are still sold in Austrian kitchen shops and they last forever. My grandmother Eva's was at least forty years old.
• •Spritzgebäck belong in a mixed Keksdose alongside Vanillekipferl, Linzer Augen, and Rumkugeln. The Austrian tradition is to fill one large tin with several kinds and bring it out whenever guests arrive during the Christmas season. Each cookie holds its own because butter cookies don't transfer flavors to their neighbors.
• •Resist the temptation to add lemon zest, almond extract, or anything else. The beauty of Spritzgebäck is that they taste of butter, vanilla, and nothing else. When you add more, you get less.

Advance Preparation

• •The dough can be made a day ahead and refrigerated, wrapped tightly in cling film. Let it sit at room temperature for 20 minutes before piping so it softens enough to press through the nozzle without a fight.
• •Un-dipped cookies keep in a sealed tin for up to three weeks at cool room temperature. Dip in chocolate whenever you're ready to serve or gift them.
• •Chocolate-dipped cookies keep for two weeks in a tin stored in a cool room. Don't refrigerate the tin or condensation will ruin the chocolate finish.

Frequently Asked Questions

Nutrition Information

1 serving (about 16g)