Chocolate Spritz Cookies Recipe

What are Spritz Cookies?

Spritz cookies, or chocolate spritz cookies, must have originated in Central Europe, mostly around the German-speaking corners of Europe.

Chocolate spritz cookies, the chocolate variation of plain Spritz, are some of the most commonly baked cookies during Christmastime.

Spritz cookies are piped or pressed shortcrust cookies and are better known as Spritzgebäck in German.

Spritz are of course popular and common place in the US and Canada as well!

How are they made?

Spritz cookies are prepared to form a wet stirred short crust pastry which includes eggs to keep the cookies firm after having baked them.

To make chocolate Spritz cookies, you need to add cocoa powder to the base mixture.

Spritz cookies are great for cookie baking beginners, as this stirred short crust dough is the easiest pastry out there for cookies.

You just need to pipe or press the cookies into shapes and that's it.

So if you want to get better in piping pastry, then you should make these cookies as it teaches you easily how to hold the piping bag.

You literally get the hang of it quickly!

Tips

Preparation

The stirred shortcrust should never be mixed & stirred for too long, or it won't hold together. That can result in the fats separating from the pastry while baking, and you can recognize this when the fat oozes out during the baking process.

Just mix the pastry for as long as needed, that means until there are no lumps left and it looks smooth. Usually, not longer than 2–3 minutes.

Consistency

The stirred shortcrust pastry consistency should be smooth.

To achieve that, you need to mix the sugar with the butter first, and then only you add the scrambled eggs a batch at a time while mixing with a hand mixer to a smooth pastry.

Sieved Flour is added only at the end, and the pastry is piped on the baking tray without delay!

Baking

The temperature while baking should always be 400 Fahrenheit (200 °C) for small shortcrust pastries such as the piped/pressed cookies.

If the oven is too cool, then the pastry's fat will ooze out and the cookies will lose shape.

On the contrary, if the oven is too hot, then the small bakeries tend to burn rapidly.

In general, they should be baked to a very light to golden shade (always for about 10 minutes).

So as you can see, it's all about timing and simple physics in the kitchen and I don't think so you need to be a pastry professional to make your own batch of chocolate spritz cookies at home.

In fact, chocolate spritz cookies are perfect when you are planning to bake with your kids this Christmas.

Variations

Chocolate Spritz cookies can be shaped into different forms, and you can decorate the cookies to your liking with powdered sugar, nuts, and jam.

We usually tend to dip the Spitz cookies into molten chocolate, or at least the ends. That makes the cookies all the more special.

Another thing that you can do is to spread some jam on one cookie floor side and press another cookie on the jam to make a sandwich chocolate spritz cookie.

Or if you want plain Spritz cookies, then you are, of course, free to skip the cocoa powder in the recipe further below!

Cookie Press or Piping Bag

You have the option between a comfortable Cookie Press or a piping bag to shape beautiful cookies.

You either pick the cookie press or the piping bag with the nozzle tips. 

Whichever you use is a preference story and depends on your budget and how much you are ready to spend on your kitchen equipment.

I, personally, prefer the piping bag with nozzles because I learned to make Spritz cookies at school with this method.

More cookie recipes 

• Classic Lebkuchen
• Linzer cookies
• Cinnamon Stars

This post has been updated and was first published on the 26th November 2012.