German Spritz Cookies (Press + Meat Grinder)
German efficiency meets Christmas baking! These melt-in-your-mouth German Spritz Cookies can be made with a handy spritz cookie press or – like my family makes them – with a meat grinder and cookie attachments. Very industrial I know! If you love shortbread or traditional butter cookies, you’ll have to add these spritz biscuits to your must-bake list this year.
Growing up in Germany, we made these meat grinder spritz cookies every year with my family alongside Kokosmakronen and Lebkuchen of course. We never used the meat grinder for anything else to be honest and called it “Plätzchenmühle” which translates to “cookie mill”. An efficient piece of baking equipment that speaks to the Germans’ deep desire for efficiency I think. Spritz means to squirt by the way but squirt cookies just sound wrong, don’t they?
My Mama and Papa carried my meat grinder halfway across the world in their luggage so my kids can have the same Christmas baking experience here in New Zealand as I did growing up. Lucky them!
Whether you use a cookie press or invest in a meat grinder with cookie attachments, I hope these classic butter cookies bring you as much joy as they gave my family over the last 30 years.
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German Spritz Cookies
Ingredients
- 1 cup butter unsalted, softened
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 2 eggs room-temperature
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
- 2 cups ground almonds
- 2 3/4 cups self-rising flour
Instructions
- In a large bowl, cream the softened butter with the sugar using a large spoon or electric handheld mixer. You can also use your stand mixer of course.1 cup butter, 1 cup granulated sugar
- Add the eggs and vanilla extract and continue mixing until the mixture is well combined.2 eggs, 2 tsp vanilla extract
- Add the almond flour and self rising flour. Mix until just combined and you have a very soft dough.2 cups ground almonds, 2 3/4 cups self-rising flour
Spritz Cookie Press Method
- Preheat the oven to 350F (180C). Line 2 baking trays with parchment paper.
- Meanwhile shape the cookies using a spritz cookie press. The dough will be nice and soft and can easily be pushed through the press.
- Shape the cookies straight onto the baking tray as they will be hard to move once shaped. Leave 1 inch of space in between the cookies as they will expand when baking.
Meat Grinder Method
- Place half the dough onto some cling wrap and roll it up onto a 8-inch log that's about 1 1/2 inches in diameter. Repeat with the remaining dough and place the logs in the freezer for 1 hour or the fridge for at least 2 hours to firm up.
- Remove the cookie dough logs from the freezer and preheat the oven to 350F (180C). Line 2 baking trays with parchment paper.
- The dough needs to be of the consistency of firm playdough. Start feeding the first log through the meat grinder. It'll take a fair bit of dough to fill up the grinder. Keep turning the handle in a clockwise motion to feed the dough through the cylinder. Add your desired cookie attachment and start shaping the spritz cookies. We love to use the star shape and make rings and hearts. This is best done with two people – one feeds the dough through the machine and the other one receives the cookies.
Both Methods
- Bake the spritz cookies for 10-12 minutes until you see light brown edges forming at the sides of the cookies. They will still be very soft. Remove the cookies from the oven and let them cool for 5 minutes on the sheet before transferring them to a cooling rack. Repeat the process until you have no dough left – depending on the size of the cookies you'll fill 3-4 trays.
- Add any icing or dip them in melted chocolate once fully cooled.
Video
Notes
Nutrition
Ingredients and substitutions
- Butter – Use softened unsalted butter.
- Flour – Self rising flour is a handy alternative to using 2 3/4 cups of all-purpose flour, 4 tsp baking powder, and 3/4 tsp salt.
- Sugar – Granulated sugar works best.
- Almond flour – Fine almond meal or flour.
- Vanilla – I use vanilla extract but you can also opt for vanilla syrup, vanilla bean paste, or essence if needed. 1 tsp of almond extract instead of vanilla extract is can be used as well to support the almond flour flavor.
- Eggs – Medium-sized eggs stored at room temperature.
Spritz cookies: step-by-step
Make sure the butter and sugar are creamed well.
The dough is very soft – don’t be alarmed.
Press the dough through a spritz cookie press or chill it and use a meat grinder with a cookie dough attachment.
Let the cookies fully cool down before decorating them or storing them in cookie tins.
My top 3 spritz cookie tips
Large batch: This recipe creates between 36 and 48 cookies depending on their size. Make sure you have enough trays, cooling rack space, and cookie tins before you start.
Consistency: if the dough is too soft refrain from adding more flour or the cookies will break and get dry. Simply pop the dough back into the fridge for a while.
Decorating: We like to eat them plain here in New Zealand during the summertime but growing up in Germany we used to dip them into melted chocolate half-way and add some sprinkles on top. Yum!
