At the height of summer, I purchased some baker's ammonia from King Arthur Flour, and I have been trying to find new uses for it since. I soon learned that baker's ammonia is a key ingredient in springerle cookies, but I also read that it is inadvisable to make spingerle in humid weather. So, I have been waiting for months for the crisp, dry weather of autumn to arrive, and it's finally here!
Springerle are dry, cake-like German cookies that are imprinted with molds and traditionally flavored with anise. I purchased some springerle molds from House on the Hill, and also used a recipe that was included with my order, which is available here. In addition, I watched this video demonstrating the recipe before I set out to give it a try.
The recipe method is a bit unusual. After you beat room temperature eggs for 10-20 minutes, you beat in powdered sugar, softened butter, baker's ammonia that has been dissolved in milk, salt, flavoring, and cake flour. Since I am not really a fan of anise, I made my springerle lemon flavored by using Boyajian lemon oil (I used 4 teaspoons, which was the amount specified for citrus oils in the version of the recipe I received with my molds). After the dough comes together, you knead it with flour until it's no longer sticky, roll it out, print it with the molds, cut out the cookies, and leave the cookies out to dry for 24 hours before baking.
The mold I used for my cookies was "Bird on a Branch," which is fairly large with an image almost four inches in diameter. It took a bit of practice to get the printing technique down, but after a few tries, I was able to get cookies with clean impressions. I got only 18 cookies from my batch of dough, and after I let them dry for 24 hours, I baked them for 25 minutes at 300 degrees.
I thought the cookies looked a little plain, so I painted the birds on some of the cookies with gold luster dust dissolved in alcohol. I loved the way these cookies tasted -- a strong clean lemon flavor, with a firm, cakey consistency. I understand that springerle can be stored for weeks and are supposed to improve with time, but I thought they tasted wonderful right after baking. However, I'm going to stash some away and see how they taste in December -- I think they will be worth the wait!
Recipe: "Nini's Perfection Springerle Cookies," from House on the Hill.
Springerle are dry, cake-like German cookies that are imprinted with molds and traditionally flavored with anise. I purchased some springerle molds from House on the Hill, and also used a recipe that was included with my order, which is available here. In addition, I watched this video demonstrating the recipe before I set out to give it a try.
The recipe method is a bit unusual. After you beat room temperature eggs for 10-20 minutes, you beat in powdered sugar, softened butter, baker's ammonia that has been dissolved in milk, salt, flavoring, and cake flour. Since I am not really a fan of anise, I made my springerle lemon flavored by using Boyajian lemon oil (I used 4 teaspoons, which was the amount specified for citrus oils in the version of the recipe I received with my molds). After the dough comes together, you knead it with flour until it's no longer sticky, roll it out, print it with the molds, cut out the cookies, and leave the cookies out to dry for 24 hours before baking.
The mold I used for my cookies was "Bird on a Branch," which is fairly large with an image almost four inches in diameter. It took a bit of practice to get the printing technique down, but after a few tries, I was able to get cookies with clean impressions. I got only 18 cookies from my batch of dough, and after I let them dry for 24 hours, I baked them for 25 minutes at 300 degrees.
Recipe: "Nini's Perfection Springerle Cookies," from House on the Hill.
Comments
Like I said, I'll try Nini's recipe, maybe very soon. I'm having trouble grasping that Thanksgiving is next week and my Christmas baking will have to start about two weeks after that.
(I'll admit that the iridescent sprinkle dust I'd seen elsewhere looked like snail slime.)
We do springerle cookies every few years, and had great success this time around.
http://howsrobb.blogspot.com/2011/12/springerle-success.html
this year we taught a friend, and now it is a part of her family tradition. That's what I love about baking......
Our cookies come out soft and get hard as they age.
If you put a piece of fresh bread in with the cookies, it helps keep them soft.