Molded Spiced Butter Cookies
I am writing this as snow falls outside of our studio with a warm cup of homemade cocoa nearby and a few of these delicious spiced biscuits to nibble on. It feels like the perfect winter day! The chickens are meandering out on the porch looking for scraps, and the wind is howling. I cannot wait for inches of deep snow, but for now it looks like it will be just a light dusting.
This is my new favorite cookie recipe. Moree like a biscuit than a cookie, springerle cookies are crisp and perfectly spiced. Rather than a simple butter cookie, I thought something with a bite might be nice!
I was generously gifted a few more cookie molds from Ella of Christmas Cookie House, and they are perfect for the holidays! If you are looking for a delightful classic Christmas dessert with an old-fashioned twist, I think that you will absolutely love making springerle.
the cookie molds:
These beautiful handmade cookie molds traveled to our Iowa farm all the way from England! They are made from birch wood and can be used for all sorts of different recipes like gingerbread, German springerle, Dutch speculaas, or even these Cinnamon Salt Dough ornaments!
I decided on the Pinecone cookie mold, Santa cookie mold, and Matrioshka Russian Doll cookie mold.
history of springerle:
Springerle are a historical cookie of German origins, though they are also historically linked to Bavaria and Austria. These are places from my own family heritage, and I love learning more about parts of my ancestry that have been culturally replaced or forgotten. I often think about how my great-grandparents traveled to the United States from Germany during the second world war not because they wanted to, but because they were forced to leave their farm by Russian soldiers and had no where else to go. After generations, I certainly do not feel a deep connection to Germany, as I have never been there and I did not grow up around my grandparents. I often wonder if they ever hoped to go back home.
The one thing I can do is search for traditions though food, which is one of my favorite things to do!
These cookies are a shaped or molded cookie or biscuit, stamped into a springerle mold. The molds can be hand carved or machine made, and it can be really rare to find antique springerle molds! The cookies can be painted or dyed with food coloring to enhance their design.
finding springerle molds:
I found a few antique molds from the nineteenth century at a local antique shop over the summer, and I have been waiting to use them for holiday cookies! The photos above are from my mold, though I forgot to snap a photo of the mold on this day! It is a large rectangular block with multiple designs that you cut into small rectangular biscuits.
These cookies can be traced back to a German holiday called Julfest which is a pagan midwinter celebration. How delightful! These cookies were made a sacrifice to the gods from those who were of lesser means. The offerings were a hopeful sacrifice for the return of a mild winter and an earlier spring.
There are some molds on display in Europe from the fourteenth century! How amazing is that?
the method:
For these cookies, they are really quite easy to make! There is no refrigeration required. In fact, I think that it kind of alters the cookies in a way that I wasn’t too fond of. I preferred to bake them directly after mixing the dough.
The dough is made in the traditional way, by creaming together the sugar and butter and folding in the dry ingredients.
To shape the cookies, you will want to heavily flour your mold. Do not be afraid of this, as you can brush off any excess flour with a pastry brush, and whatever is left on the cookie will bake off. The more detailed the mold, the more flour that you want in those tiny crevices.
The cookie should fall right out of the mold after tapping it on the countertop a few times. If you have extra dough around the edges of your cookie, it can be cut off with a paring knife. Then press around the edges with your fingers to smooth them.
These cookies do not spread, so you can place them fairly close together.
I love these cookies! They are crispy and biscuit-like. They make the perfect dunkers for coffee or hot cocoa or a tall glass of milk. My children loved them! They are a little bit spicy and so much more uniquely flavored than a butter cookie. My son wanted to get in on the photos this time! He may have tasted a little coffee in my mug as well - oops! (:
Enjoy!
xoxo Kayla
Molded Spiced Butter Cookies
Ingredients
- 3/4 cup salted butter, softened
- 3 cups all-purpose flour, sifted
- 1 cup light or dark brown sugar, packed
- 1/4 cup heavy cream
- 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
- 2 egg yolks
- 1 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1 tsp ground ginger
- 1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
- 1/4 tsp ground cloves
- 1/4 tsp baking powder
- generous pinch of kosher salt
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 375° F and line 2 large baking sheets with parchment paper.
- In a large bowl or the bowl of a standing electric mixer, beat the butter, 1/2 cup of the flour, and brown sugar until light and fluffy, about 5-8 minutes.
- Add in the heavy cream, vanilla, and egg yolks and beat until combined, about 2-3 minutes.
- In a large bowl, mix together the remaining flour, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, cloves, baking powder, and salt. Stir this into the butter mixture until a dough forms. It will be stiff and smooth, but it should not be crumbly.
- Generously flour your cookie molds. I used about 5-inch molds, but you can use any size for this recipe. Gather up enough cookie dough to fill in your mold to the edges of the design. Press in with your fingertips. If your cookie dough goes over the edge of the design, that is okay.
- Flip the cookie mold over and tap it on the countertop until the cookie falls out. The more flour in your cookie mold, the easier the cookie will pop out of the mold.
- Once the cookie falls out, use a pastry brush or clean paintbrush to dust off any excess flour. You can also cut around the edges to clean them up with a paring knife.
- Place the cookies about 1-inch apart on baking sheets and bake for about 14 minutes for a 4 to 5-inch cookie, about 10-12 minutes for smaller cookies, or until the cookies are a deep golden brown and fully cooked.
- Place the cookies on wire cooling racks to finish cooling. They are more biscuit-like than soft! Enjoy with a hot cup of coffee or cocoa.
