These Christmas spritz cookies are buttery, crisp-edged, melt-in-your-mouth perfect. With just one dough and 20 mins of prep, you can make endless whimsical shapes! The recipe is your holiday cookie game-changer.
Think of these easy spritz cookies as a love child of shortbread cookies and eggless butter cookies. Golden, buttery, and dressed for the holidays with sprinkles, chocolate, or whatever your heart desires.
Whether you use a spritz cookie press or pipe the dough by hand, this easy spritz cookie recipe is about to become your go-to. You’ll get trays of cookies: the kind that vanish before you even finish brewing coffee. Just like my Mexican wedding cookies.
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Why You’ll Love This Recipe
✨ With this spritz cookies recipe, you can make dozens of cookies (depending on the size) in so many fun shapes and sizes. Decorate them. Box them and you'll have a fantastic homemade gift for the holidays.
✨ These are fantastic make-ahead cookies. The dough keeps. The baked cookies keep. And your holiday stress doesn’t balloon!
✨ Buttery, tender, with just enough snap, these mildly sweet cookies are flavored with almond extract that really elevates the flavor, much like my almond ricotta cookies and almond cinnamon cookies.
✨ This is such a versatile spritz cookie recipe! Add food colors, decorate them with sprinkles, chocolate drizzle - whatever you fancy works.
Spritz Cookies Ingredients
Butter is the magic ingredient that gives the cookies their signature melt-in-the-mouth texture. I used salted butter for ease. If you use unsalted, add 1/4 teaspoon of salt along with the flour.
Sugar: I prefer caster sugar because it dissolves quickly and easily into the batter.
Flour: All-purpose flour makes the best base for these cookies.
Egg: binds everything together and helps the Christmas spritz cookies hold their shape when pressed.
Vanilla extract is a classic must-have for this cookie recipe.
Almond extract is your secret weapon for making the best spritz cookies. The simple ingredient lends a lot of oomph. Just what you need for holiday baking. A little amount gives big flavor.
Milk is not necessary, but you can add it to change the consistency of the cookie dough and help it pipe more easily.
Please see the recipe card below for full information about the ingredients and quantities.
How To Make Christmas Spritz Cookies
Step 1: Beat softened butter and caster sugar thoroughly with an electric beater.
Step 2: Add an egg, vanilla extract, and almond extract, and beat the mixture well.
Step 3: Add all-purpose flour and mix until it is just incorporated.
Step 4: My cookie press broke a little while ago, and I never got around to replacing it. So, I made the spritz cookies without a press by piping the dough through a star-shaped nozzle.
Step 5: Bake for 10 to 12 minutes, until the cookies are pale golden.
Step 6: Allow them to cool for five minutes before carefully lifting and placing them on a wire rack.
Final step: Serve!
Pro Tips
- Keep that butter soft, not melted. Melted butter = flat, sad cookies. Room temperature butter = bakery-level perfection.
- Don’t overmix the dough. Cream the butter and sugar well. But once the flour goes in, switch to a spatula and mix just until no streaks of flour remain.
- You can use an electric beater or stand mixer when making spritz cookie dough, but keep in mind to use a low speed to avoid over-developing the dough.
- Feel free to add a couple of tablespoons of lukewarm milk to the dough if it's too stiff.
- Cool your tray between batches. Warm trays cause the dough to melt before it bakes. If you’re reusing a tray, run it under cold water, dry it, and then pipe the next batch.
- If you've made the dough in advance, remember to bring it to room temperature so you can easily pipe it.
How To Decorate Christmas Spritz Cookies
Spritz cookies are very, very versatile. You can mix in food coloring to the dough. You can decorate these holiday butter cookies with colored sugar, sprinkles, or glacé cherries before baking.
The dough is great fun to experiment with shapes. I chose to make three different types and then decorated them in different ways: white and silver sprinkles for winter wonderland, red and green for Christmas cheer, or half-dip in chocolate because, yes, why not.
You can also ice the cookies with a lemon icing like I did for my Christmas wreath cookies.
Pair with coffee, tea, or a steaming mug of hot chocolate. Wrap them in a festive tin along with thumbprint cookies and matcha pinwheel cookies for a thoughtful homemade gift.
Recipe FAQs
Spritz cookies are soft cookies made with butter, sugar, and flour. They're slightly different from eggless shortbread cookies, as the dough does not need to be chilled or rolled.
They’re said to have originated in Germany, Scandinavia, and the Netherlands. Their name comes from the German word "spritzen," which means to squirt. And that's pretty much how you make them: by squirting or pressing the dough through a cookie press or piping them with a pastry bag.
A press is great, but not mandatory. You can just as easily make these Christmas spritz cookies using a piping bag with a star tip.
Spritz cookies have a high-fat content, so they tend to spread during baking. The first tip is not to grease your tray. You want the dough to stick to it and prevent the cookies from spreading and losing their shape. If the first batch of your cookies still spreads, chill the piped dough for 15-20 minutes and then bake.
Yes, you can! Keep the dough ready and refrigerated in advance. Bring it down to room temperature before spooning it into the cookie press or piping bag.
After they’ve cooled, store these Christmas spritz cookies in an airtight container at room temperature. They’ll stay fresh for about a week.
📖 Recipe
Christmas Spritz Cookies
Ingredients
- 1 cup Butter, softened I used salted butter. If using unsalted butter, please add 1/4 tsp salt along with the flour.
- 1/2 cup Caster sugar
- 1 Egg
- 1 tsp Vanilla extract
- 1 tsp Almond extract
- 2 1/4 cup All-purpose flour
- 2-3 tbsp Milk, lukewarm Optional
- Sprinkles, Melted chocolate for decorating
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 180 C / 350 F. Line a baking tray with parchment paper or Silpat. You can also leave the tray unlined and ungreased.
- Beat the softened butter and sugar in a large bowl, using an electric beater, until the mixture is fluffy and light.1 cup Butter, softened, 1/2 cup Caster sugar
- Add the egg, vanilla extract, and almond extract. Mix well.1 Egg, 1 tsp Vanilla extract, 1 tsp Almond extract
- Mix the flour in using a spatula. If the dough is very stiff, please add milk, one tablespoon at a time. The batter should be soft and have a pipable consistency.2 1/4 cup All-purpose flour, 2-3 tbsp Milk, lukewarm
- Transfer the dough into a piping bag fitted with a wide star nozzle ( or a cookie press). Pipe the dough onto the baking tray. Decorate with the sprinkle of your choice, if using.
- Bake for 10-12 minutes at 180 C / 350 F until pale golden. Cool on the baking tray for 5 minutes before carefully transferring to a cooling rack to cool completely.
- Once the cookies are cooled, you can dip them in melted chocolate. Allow the chocolate set for 15-20 minutes.
- Store in an air-tight container. Enjoy!
Notes
- Keep that butter soft, not melted. Melted butter = flat, sad cookies. Room temperature butter = bakery-level perfection.
- Don’t overmix the dough. Cream the butter and sugar well. But once the flour goes in, switch to a spatula and mix just until no streaks of flour remain.
- You can use an electric beater or stand mixer when making spritz cookie dough, but keep in mind to use a low speed to avoid over-developing the dough.
- Feel free to add a couple of tablespoons of lukewarm milk to the dough if it's too stiff.
- Cool your tray between batches. Warm trays cause the dough to melt before it bakes. If you’re reusing a tray, run it under cold water, dry it, and then pipe the next batch.
- If you've made the dough in advance, remember to bring it to room temperature so you can easily pipe it.
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