Love and Olive Oil
Vanilla Almond Spritz Cookies

Vanilla Almond Spritz Cookies

Bettie's Vanilla Almond Spritz Cookie Recipe

One of my earliest memories is making spritz cookies with my grandmother for Christmas, the palm trees glittering with lights and the warm breeze a welcome change from the Colorado snow (white Christmases are overrated, in my opinion: the only white I want to see at Christmastime is sugar.)

Growing up, we usually spent Christmas on the opposite coast in Florida with my mom’s side of the family, but that one year in Los Angeles, with Bettie and the rest of the Landis clan, stands out in my mind, if only for the dozens and dozens of Christmas cookies we made together.

Vanilla Almond Spritz Cookies with edible glitter

I recently asked my aunts if they had Bettie’s recipe for spritz cookies, and sure enough, they did. In true Bettie fashion the ingredients were written on an index card, two different recipe variations labeled simply Spritz #1 and Spritz #2, but nothing else: no oven temperature or cook time or instructions whatsoever.

I tested both recipes, deciding that Spritz #2 (made with granulated sugar instead of powdered sugar) was preferable in terms of flavor and texture, and then tweaked it slightly to modernize the recipe (added a pinch of salt, for example, as well as a touch of cornstarch and an extra egg yolk to help the cookies keep their shape when baking).

If you prefer a butterier, softer cookie, increase the butter to 10 tablespoons instead of 8. I opted for more shape definition, since the snowflakes are just so gosh darn pretty I didn’t want to lose the details.

Vanilla Almond Spritz Cookies Recipe

One thing I remember most about making spritz cookies with Bettie is the old-fashioned cookie press she had, and just how much pain it inflicted on your poor wrists and hands. I mean, your muscles were literally sore the day after using it.

Luckily, times have changed. OXO’s cookie press is worlds away from that old metal press, with an ergonomic lever that pumps out a perfectly shaped cookie with barely any pressure.

Use the spoon and level method to measure your flour. Snowflake Spritz Cookies with edible glitter

The trick to getting spritz cookies to stick to the cookie sheets? That’s not modern science (the new presses work just the same as the old ones in that respect). Some recipes will tell you to use a non-nonstick, aluminum cookie sheet. Don’t do it. While your dough might stick, your baked cookies will too (ack).

For this recipe I used OXO’s Non-Stick Pro Cookie sheet and simply froze the cookie sheet first. A good 10 to 15 minutes in the freezer and your cookies will stick to the cookie sheet, like magic. Don’t try to go too fast, press down the handle, pause for a second to let the dough flash-chill, then gently lift up and your cookie should remain perfectly positioned on the cookie sheet. It may take a few tries to get it to work, but trust me, it does.

If you are baking multiple sheets of cookies, you want to wipe down the cookie sheet and refreeze it between each batch. If you have multiple cookie sheets this process will be quicker, otherwise let the cookies cool for 5-10 minutes, transfer them to a wire cooling rack, then once the cookie sheet is cool to the touch, wipe off the residual grease and sanding sugar that may be stuck to it, and pop it back in the freezer for 10 minutes.

Spritz Cookie snowflakes sprinkled with sanding sugar and edible glitter.

With a sprinkle of opal sanding sugar and a pinch of iridescent edible glitter, these snowflake spritz cookies sparkle like freshly fallen snow.

I used the snowflake disk from the Christmas Cookie Press Disk set, which is more detailed than the standard snowflake disk that comes with the press.

Remember, if you want to make multiple shapes, limit yourself to one shape per cookie sheet, since the different shapes will bake at different rates.

The Recipe for my Grandmother's Perfect Spritz Cookies Buttery Vanilla Almond Spritz Cookies Recipe

For a multi-colored effect, color one half of your dough with 1-2 drops of sky blue Americolor gel food coloring – the blue mixes with the natural yellow of the dough to form a lovely turquoise blue. Pressing one sheet of blue and one of white, and you should have a small ball of each color leftover. Roll into logs and twist the two colors together, then load into the cookie press for a pretty swirled effect.

Old-Fashioned Vanilla Almond Spritz Cookies Recipe

You could also go classic, with red and green sanding sugar, like Bettie used to do. Classic or not, I think she’d be pleased with these!

Vanilla Almond Spritz Cookies

Vanilla Almond Spritz Cookies

Buttery spritz cookies flavored with vanilla and almond. These classic holiday cookies have always been one of my favorites!

Ingredients:

  • 1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, at room temperature
  • 1/2 cup granulated sugar
  • 2 egg yolks
  • 3/4 teaspoon almond extract
  • 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 1 3/4 cups (7.5oz/212g) all-purpose flour
  • 1 tablespoon cornstarch
  • 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
  • food coloring (optional)
  • sanding sugar, for sprinkling (optional)

Directions:

  1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Place a nonstick baking sheet in the freezer for at least 10 minutes before baking.
  2. In a large mixing bowl or the bowl of a stand mixer, cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy, 3 to 5 minutes. Add egg yolks and extracts and beat on medium-high speed for another 2 to 3 minutes until creamy, scraping down the sides of the bowl as needed.
  3. Add flour, cornstarch, and salt and mix on low speed until dry ingredients are just incorporated. If coloring, divide dough in half and add food coloring and knead until color is evenly distributed.
  4. Place desired design disk on end of cookie press. Fill tube with dough, then screw on lever top.
  5. Remove cookie sheet from freezer. Place cookie press flat on cookie sheet surface, press lever, pause for one second to allow the dough to freeze to the sheet, then gently lift press. Repeat with remaining cookies, leaving 1 inch of space between cookies (they won’t spread very much so you should be able to fit an entire tube of dough onto one cookie sheet). If desired, sprinkle cookies with sanding sugar.
  6. Bake for 6 to 7 minutes or until tops are set and edges are just starting to brown. Remove from oven and let cool for 10 minutes, then transfer cookies to a wire rack to cool completely. Let cookie sheet cool, then freeze for 10 minutes before pressing out the next sheet of cookies.
  7. Spritz cookies will keep in an airtight container for up to 1 week.
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24 Comments

  1. Rating: 1

    Hands down the most problematic spritz recipe I’ve made to date. Will not be remaking.

    • Sorry you had trouble with this recipe. Can you let me know a bit more about what happened and I can see if I can figure out what the issue is.

  2. This recipe did not come together for me as well, although I added the egg whites and an extra whole egg and it worked just fine.

  3. Those snowflakes came out beautiful! I liked the tip about freezing the cookie sheets, but on all my nonstick cookie sheets (I have two different kinds), the decorative sugars started melting, making it really hard to remove the cookies as the sugar started sticking to my spatula. The cookies also cooked much faster on the nonstick sheets. My ancient aluminum pan that was my grandmothers is still the best! They come off that sheet no problem when you cook them till they just start turning brown at the edges. I have never had a problem with the spritz cookies sticking to my aluminum pan. But I always use the recipe that came with my cookie press, so perhaps this particular recipe has that problem…?? 

    • Sometimes grandma knows best! I too tried a few different cookie sheets with these cookies, they all bake differently and one will likely work better than the other. :) As for the sugar sticking, try dumping the excess off of the pan (the cookies shouldn’t move hopefully) before you bake it, that should help. :)

    • Idk what I did wrong but I followed this recipie to a t and as soon as I added the sifted flour it ended up dry and crumbly ugh. 

      • Sometimes it needs a little kneading to bring the dough together (use your hands!) Also, make sure you’ve measured your flour accurately (I prefer using weight based measurements for this reason), as too much flour can definitely make the dough crumblu.

  4. Recipe is to dry. I put the egg whites in and came out better

  5. Dough was too stiff. Wouldn’t go through my cookie press. Disappointed 

    • Definitely make sure all your ingredients are at room temperature, also weigh your flour. That said, this dough is definitely on the stiffer side, which is necessary for cookies to hold a nice shape and not spread. I developed it for this particular cookie press, it may/may not work with other brands. If you reduce the amount of flour the dough might be easier to work with, just know the shapes won’t be quite as crisp!

  6. I love that this recipe is not too big. Most I have found make twice this much dough. It worked very well for me. I made a variation, substituted 3/4 cup fine almond meal for the same amount of flour. The texture is not as fine but I love the flavor. I call it my Marzipan Cookie. I used the six petal flower from the set that comes with the Oxo cookie press and put an almond slice in the middle. For a beginner It’s a good idea the use a dye with a less detail pattern. I do not sift my flour but I do spoon it into the cup, tap lightly then level with a knife. I use non-stick cookie sheets and do not freeze them. I found I got condensation on the sheet when frozen and it made things worse. You just need the right recipe…Thanks.

  7. I struggled with this recipe: The dough seemed too stiff to press – Does this recipe call for it to be sifted flour? I followed everything exactly (yes, I weighed the flour).

  8. Awful I followed the recipe step by step. Tasted terrible very difficult to get out of the cookie press baked one Bach would not come off the cookie sheet threw all the dough away!

    • Sorry to hear these didn’t work for you! It sounds like you may have had too much flour in the dough. Did you weight out the ingredients or make any other substitutions? Also, if you were having issues with the cookies sticking to the naked cookie sheets I recommend using parchment or a silicone baking mat which helps immensely!

  9. When did 1 3/4 cups flour equal 8 ounces? I used part Splenda for the sugar. I added a bit of water as the mixture was too dry. The cookies did turn out okay and I do have an OXO cookie press.

  10. How did you get this color. What color did did you use. Thanks

  11. thank you for these and for modernizing them too! I have memories like yours about a family cake recipe, and yep, written on an index card, but alas not found in years so still trying each year to get the recipe from memory to match the taste in my memory, but hasn’t worked yet! Anyway, thank you for this recipe!

  12. Beautiful looking cookies ….. that turquoise colour is just marvellous! And thanks for introducing me to Spritz Cookies. I have my eye on that OXO cookie press now!

  13. Spritz cookies have always been one of my favorites, A) because of the name, because it’s just a HAPPY name; and B) because of their simple deliciousness; and C) because of their magical shapes. These cookies embody the spritz cookie magic for sure!

  14. Thank you so much Linsday for updating Bettie’s recipe! And directions! What a concept. Bettie would be very pleased with this new version, and Bob would run out and order the OXO cookie press (we called it a “cookie gun”) for the Landis Department Store. I will make some tonight.

  15. Your grandmother made these in giant batches and the recipe I have calls for a pound of butter to begin with. “Bake about 10 min. at 350. ” Yours are so beautiful. I love the snowflake pattern and multi color dough. As I remember, Bettie used sprinkles or candied fruit pieces in the center.
    Love, Auntie Bet

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