These are my favorite spritz cookies! Using a cookie press, shape this easy buttery cookie dough into intricate shapes and have fun decorating with sprinkles, chocolate, and chocolate chips. No cookie dough chilling required and the cookies freeze and ship wonderfully.
I originally published this recipe in 2018 and have since added new photos, a video tutorial, and additional success tips.
What Are Spritz Cookies?
The base dough is very similar to my sugar cookies, butter cookies, and pinwheel cookies. Each are shaped a different way, and spritz cookies are shaped with a cookie press. They’re buttery and sweet and, with the right recipe, hold their intricate shape when baked. Spritz cookies are also similar to shortbread cookies, but spritz cookies usually contain an egg. Eggs help the spritz cookies hold their shape when baked, so they don’t crumble like shortbread cookies do.
The word “spritz” actually comes from the German word spritzen which means “to squirt.” This refers to squirting or pushing the cookie dough through a cookie press. I don’t know why, but I always associate the word spritz with “spritely” because spritz cookies remind me of something little spritely fairies would eat!
One reader, Julie, commented: “The cookies came out great, and tasted delicious! I’m very new to baking, so I ordered the OXO cookie press, read all of your tips, and was thrilled with the results. If I could make these, anyone can! I can’t wait to make these again! ★★★★★”
Another reader, Patti, commented: “I have been making spritz cookies forever. I saw that you were using the same cookie press that I have so I decided to try your recipe. This is the nicest my cookies have ever looked since I started baking them. ★★★★★”
What Is a Cookie Press?
I added a cookie press to my baking tools collection a few years ago. Inside this baking tool is a metal plate with a stenciled shape. A cookie press presses your cookie dough through the metal plate to create beautifully shaped cookies. It’s actually a lot easier than a rolling pin and cookie cutters!
- I recommend this OXO cookie press. This is not a sponsored post; I genuinely love this cookie press. It’s the easiest to use and comes with 12 different shapes you can swap out. Just read the hundreds of positive reviews. It also makes a wonderful holiday gift! I always include it in my annual guide full of Holiday Gifts for Bakers.
How to Make Spritz Cookies
This is my favorite recipe for spritz cookies. I love it so much that I published it in my cookbook Sally’s Cookie Addiction. Here’s why this is my favorite:
- Uses very basic ingredients
- 1-bowl recipe: Like snowball cookies, another easy and classic Christmas cookie!
- No dough-chilling required
- Fun to decorate, with no separate icing recipe required: Use sprinkles, chocolate chips, melted chocolate; and try tinting some of the dough a color.
- Freezer-friendly: After thawing, they still taste fresh!
- Ship wonderfully: These cookies hold their shape during the journey! Learn more about how to ship cookies.
The dough comes together in 1 bowl, using a mixer. There is no baking powder or baking soda needed; these buttery spritz cookies are dense, not airy. They hardly spread, so you can fit a bunch onto your baking sheets. Since the cookies are small, you can use 1 batch of dough to make a variety of shapes with your cookie press. You can even tint some of the cookie dough red or green like you see in my pictures!
How Do I Use a Cookie Press?
Each press comes with a set of instructions and the OXO cookie press I recommend is super user-friendly. Select a plate, such as the snowflake shape, and place it in the bottom compartment. After your cookie dough is prepared, spoon it inside the tube. Attach the top of the cookie press to the tube. Hold the cookie press upright, with the bottom pressed against your baking sheet. Press the lever until it clicks and lift up the cookie press. The shaped cookie will be on your baking sheet! *If the cookie dough sticks to the cookie press, use your fingers or a knife to release it and place onto the cookie sheet.
- No Cookie Press? Instead, use a pastry bag fitted with a 1/2-inch (13 mm) open star tip and use my butter cookies or chocolate butter cookies recipe, which is this cookie dough with a little milk to help make it pipe-able. 🙂
Can I admit I prefer making these over decorating sugar cookies with royal icing? Spritz cookies are much neater and faster to make, and are festive right out of the oven!
This recipe is part of my annual cookie countdown called Sally’s Cookie Palooza. It’s the biggest, most delicious event of the year! Browse dozens of cookie recipes over on the Sally’s Cookie Palooza page.
My Favorite Spritz Cookies
- Prep Time: 30 minutes
- Cook Time: 30 minutes
- Total Time: 1 hour
- Yield: 84 bite-size cookies
- Category: Cookies
- Method: Baking
- Cuisine: American
Description
These are my favorite spritz cookies! Using a cookie press, shape this easy cookie dough into intricate shapes and have fun decorating with sprinkles, chocolate, and chocolate chips. No cookie dough chilling required and they freeze and ship wonderfully.
Ingredients
- 1 cup (16 Tbsp; 226g) unsalted butter, softened to room temperature
- 3/4 cup (150g) granulated sugar
- 1 large egg, at room temperature
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- 1 teaspoon almond extract
- 2 and 1/3 cups (291g) all-purpose flour (spooned & leveled)
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- optional: gel food coloring, sprinkles, chocolate chips, and melted chocolate for decorating
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350°F (177°C).
- Line 2 or 3 large baking sheets with silicone baking mats, or use nonstick baking sheets with no liner. (Do not use parchment paper because the cookie dough, when pressed out of the cookie press, will not adhere to it.) While the oven is preheating, and if your refrigerator or freezer has room, it’s helpful to chill your lined baking sheets. It sounds odd, but dough coming out of the cookie press adheres much better to a cold surface.
- Make the dough: In a large bowl, using a handheld mixer or a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, beat the butter and granulated sugar together on medium-high speed until smooth, about 3 minutes. (Here’s a helpful tutorial if you need guidance on how to cream butter and sugar.) Add the egg, vanilla extract, and almond extract, and beat on high speed until combined, about 1 minute. Scrape down the sides and up the bottom of the bowl and beat again as needed to combine.
- On low speed, beat in the flour and salt. Turn up to high speed and beat until completely combined.
- Press the dough: Follow cookie press manufacturer’s directions to fit your cookie press with a decorative plate. Scrape some of the dough into your cookie press. Hold the cookie press perpendicular to the cold lined baking sheet and press out the cookies 2 inches (5 cm) apart. If desired, decorate the shaped cookie dough with sprinkles or press a chocolate chip into the center. Note: It’s helpful to lightly brush the shaped cookie dough with water before adding sprinkles—this helps them stick.
- If the cookie dough becomes too soft as you work, chill the shaped cookie dough in the refrigerator for 10 minutes before baking.
- Bake until very lightly browned on the edges, 7–9 minutes.
- Remove from the oven and allow to cool on the baking sheet for 5 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely. If desired, drizzle with melted chocolate.
- Cookies stay fresh in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 1 week.
Notes
- Make Ahead Instructions: You can chill the cookie dough in the refrigerator for up to 4 days before pressing the dough through the cookie press. You can also freeze the cookie dough for up to 3 months; allow to thaw overnight in the refrigerator, then bring to room temperature before continuing with step 5. Baked cookies freeze well for up to 3 months; thaw before serving.
- Special Tools (affiliate links): Baking Sheets | Silicone Baking Mats | Electric Mixer (Handheld or Stand) | OXO Cookie Press | Cooling Rack | Gel Food Coloring (if desired for tinting the cookie dough) | Sprinkles (such as Red Sanding Sugar, Green Sanding Sugar, Sapphire Sanding Sugar, or Christmas Nonpareils)
- Almond Extract: Almond extract adds such a wonderful flavor and I don’t recommend skipping it. If desired, you can leave it out completely or add another 1/2 teaspoon of pure vanilla extract in its place. You can also substitute with 3/4 teaspoon peppermint extract, lemon extract, or another flavor extract you enjoy. Adding 1/4 teaspoon of ground cinnamon is delicious too!
- Food Coloring: I tinted 1/4 of the cookie dough green with 1 very tiny drop of green food coloring. I recommend gel food coloring. Use sparingly; 2 drops is plenty for the entire batch.
- No Cookie Press? No problem! Instead, use a pastry bag fitted with a 1/2-inch (13 mm) open star tip and use my butter cookies recipe, which is this cookie dough with a little milk to help make it pipe-able.
Reader Comments and Reviews
On softening butter. I put it in oven with oven light on for about an hour
Your recipe is delicious but the cookie spreads out so much. How do I avoid this?
Hi Maryann, thank you for trying this recipe. If you ever try this recipe again, make sure your butter is cool at room temperature— that’s the usual culprit behind cookies over-spreading. You can also chill the shaped cookies in the freezer before they go into the oven. The colder the shaped dough, the less they will over-spread. Sorry for the trouble!
Would butter extract work in place of the almond extract? Made these last year and they turned out great, but I’m not huge on almond. I like butter cookies a little better
Hi Kaitlin, we haven’t made these with butter extract before, but you could try it, or just use vanilla only. Enjoy!
This recipe is amazing. It worked perfectly. My cookies look amazing and most importantly, TASTE amazing. I will absolutely make these again and again.
We have an egg and nut allergy household – I know I can use more vanilla instead of the almond, however for the egg can I use Bob’gg replacer or is there something else I could use instead – even omit the egg? I’ll take any ideas!
Hi LiAnne, we haven’t tested any egg replacements in this recipe, but would love to hear what you try!
Believe it or not 1/4 cup of (unflavored) seltzer water is a great substitute for eggs when baking in a vegan/egg free home.
Hi Sally, how do I get the dough to stick to the pan? I followed all the steps, children the pans before using the cookie press, but after I pressed the lever and went to pull up the press, only half of them stuck.
Hi Anna, we’ve never had that problem, but wonder if it could be a dough consistency issue. Did your dough seem particularly sticky? If it’s too warm, it could get stuck to the press. Make sure to start with proper room temperature butter, and if the dough seems too sticky, you can add a little more flour, or try chilling it for a bit to firm up before pressing the cookies.
I had that problem when first making spritz cookies. We put the cookie sheets on the freezer first. Works great.
I cannot get the dough to stick to the cookie sheets. They stick to the press. Very frustrating. I just rolled them into balls and flattened them.
Hi Diana, if the cookie dough sticks to the cookie press, use your fingers or a knife to release it and gently place onto the cookie sheet.
I found that chilling th dough so that it is a little stiff works best on room temperature cookie sheets. It doesn’t work well if you grease the cookie sheets or add parmant paper. As a last resort, slowly lift one side of the cookie press and then the other. Sometimes it sticks better when one side is on the sheet first and then the rest pulls itself put. Hope that helps.
Question: WHY unsalted butter? I could ask this of many recipes, including Spritz cookies which I used to bake with my mother 65 years ago.. we didn’t use unsalted because .. I guess “the extra expense”. Does it really affect the recipe that much? By the way I am a total fan! Yours is the only website I use for baked goods!
Hi Gayle! You can read more about using salted vs. unsalted butter in baking here 🙂
If I wanted to make these chocolate cookies what would you recommend adding.
Hi Ava, you can use our chocolate butter cookies recipe in a cookie press – see recipe Notes on that post for details.
These are good cookies, next time I make them I’m going to cut down on the almond to 1/2 tsp and increase the vanilla to 1 1/2 tsp. I also used 2 egg yolks instead of one egg.
Perfection! No other comment needed!!
The dough itself tastes great and so does the finished cookie, BUT after the first two cookie sheets that were baked, the dough would not press through the cookie press and onto the COLD cookie sheets. It was a chore to finish the rest of the cookies. I don’t know how to fix the situation, so I may not use this recipe again. I looked on-line to see if there was a “quick” fix to my problem, but no matter what I did, the cookies would not press through.
I found a recipe that recommends chilling the trays and had much more success when I tried that.
I’m so eager to make these cookies! They look cute and delicious!
Love this recipe. Haven’t made these since my Children were little and now I have Grandchildren. My kids got a kick out of this recipe and remembering when I made them when they were little. Question about adding the Cinnamon, do you still add the almond extract or maybe just a bit more vanilla? Was thinking of Teddy Graham like. Thanks and Happy Holidays!
Hi Kerrie, if you add cinnamon, you can leave out the almond extract. But it’s really up to you and your taste!
Sally, you are my go-to. Over time, I’ve come to know I can trust your recipe…even so much that I am confident trying a new one and serving it without feeling the need to “practice” first to be sure. This recipe differed from my family’s traditional (adding almond extract and taking away the baking soda) and it came together so easily and tastes SO good.
The spritz were too sweet. I will use less sugar in my next batch but I love all of your other creations!
When do you put sprinkles on the cookies and how do you get them to stick?
Hi Donna, see step 5. If desired, decorate the shaped cookie dough with sprinkles or press a chocolate chip into the center. Note: It’s helpful to lightly brush the shaped cookie dough with water before adding sprinkles—this helps them stick.
I made these cookies today. I loved the little details Sally offered—refrigerate your cookie sheets. Brilliant! I left out the almond extract—I really dislike almond. The cookies—all 48 of them—were delicious. The recipe says it makes 84! Not sure how that disconnect happened. . .
Can I half the recipe?
Hi Arman, you can halve this recipe. The best and most accurate way to halve an egg is to crack it, beat it together, measure the amount, the use half.
Thanks! I made the whole recipe for now, and only managed to make 70. Not sure where I’m missing the last batch that should have been made. I used a scale to measure everything. Loved the cookies overall, not too sweet and perfectly baked.
Just tried it! Was amazing, so light and not too sweet at all. I was wondering about the quantity though, I made the whole batch but it only made 70 ish cookies. I bought same little instrument you have to drop the cookies. Is it because my batter was too warm and more cookie dropped than yours?
My hard work with my cookie press ended up very thin pancakes. A huge disappointment.
Hi Cynthia, thank you for trying this recipe. If you ever try this recipe again, make sure your butter is cool at room temperature— that’s the usual culprit behind cookies over-spreading. You can also chill the shaped cookies in the freezer before they go into the oven. The colder the shaped dough, the less they will over-spread. Sorry for the trouble!
With a few tweaks, this comes closest that I’ve made like my Swedish Grandma made. I used fine sugar instead of regular sugar and used two egg yolks instead of an egg.
These came out perfect – they really held their shape well. I tried both chilling the baking sheet and keeping room temp – found I got better adhesion the room temp route. Thanks for another winning recipe!
I’m planning to make this cookies but I’m not fond of almond extract. Should I use 2tsp. Of vanilla instead?
Hi Deb, see the recipe note about almond extract: you can leave it out completely or add another 1/2 teaspoon of pure vanilla extract in its place. You can also substitute with 3/4 teaspoon peppermint extract, lemon extract, or another flavor extract you enjoy. Adding 1/4 teaspoon of ground cinnamon is delicious too!
The cookies taste delicious, the only thing is that they came very flat. What did I do wrong? I even chilled the pan then I chilled the pan with the dough for at least 10 minutes before putting in the oven. I don’t know why they look so flat.
Hi Linda, thank you for trying this recipe. If you ever try this recipe again, make sure your butter is cool at room temperature— that’s the usual culprit behind cookies over-spreading. You can also chill the shaped cookies in the freezer before they go into the oven. The colder the shaped dough, the less they will over-spread. Sorry for the trouble!
I look forward to making these cookies, just bought a cookie press! If I substitute the flour for Gluten Free flour will they still shape up ok?
Hi Linda, We haven’t tested these cookies with a gluten free flour to know for sure, but let us know if you try it.
The cookies were so delicious. Thank you for this recipe.
Made a batch of these for Thanksgiving and decorated with sprinkles, sanding sugar etc. Came out great-I bought the OXO cookie press and this was the first time I used it. I chilled the dough just a bit, chilled the cookie sheets. took out a large clump of it dough, rolled it into a long cylinder and loaded the press. I didn’t count them, but it made a lot of little cookies. Didn’t spread at all. Grandkids loved them. FYI color sprinkles did melt and spread a little, the grandkids didn’t care.
Hello. Do you put the sprinkles on before baking?
Hi Monika, yes, that’s right. It’s helpful to lightly brush the shaped cookie dough with water before adding sprinkles—-this helps them stick.
Can I use salted butter?
Hi Jill, if using salted butter, you can reduce the salt to 1/4 teaspoon.
The cookies looked perfect after pressing, but completely spread/melted in the oven. I’m an avid baker and can confirm that my butter was actually on the cooler side— so that wasn’t the issue. I also measured the rest of the ingredients precisely. I suspected the flour to butter ratio was way off… and the results confirmed that for me. Most press cookies call for less butter and almost double the flour. On my third sheet, I chilled the pressed cookies before baking. Same issue. They do taste decent and so my kids will eat them, but they are not presentable.
When you suggest substituting lemon extract , is that 3/4 teaspoon lemon in addition to 1 teaspoon vanilla? Or 1-teaspoon lemon instead of 1-teaspoon vanilla? Sorry, but I just threw away a weird recipe someone gave me for cookie press cookies made with lemon curd and I really want a lemony spritz cookie.
Any tips on modifying to make orange flavored cookies? Should I add another 1/2 tsp vanilla and a couple teaspoons of orange zest?
Hi Annie, we haven’t tested it ourselves, so are unsure, but I think that sounds like a good place to start. You could also try a tiny bit of orange extract for a stronger flavor. If you try something, let us know how it goes!