Amazing 8 Holiday spritz cookies secrets

Oh, the holidays! For me, nothing screams Christmas like pulling out that old cookie press, right? I remember standing on a stool in my grandmother’s kitchen—covered in flour even then—watching her stamp out perfect little shapes. We’re diving into what I think is the most charming cookie of the season: Holiday spritz cookies. These aren’t those heavy, crumbly drop cookies; these are delicate, buttery creations that practically melt in your mouth.

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Just like my favorite family recipes, this one is all about reliability. I’ve made sure this spritz cookies recipe is easy to whip up, even when life is crazy busy. I share more about my journey bringing that soulful cooking back to my everyday life over on my About Page. Trust me, the beauty of using a press is that this buttery almond dough holds every intricate detail—from tiny wreaths to little trees—so you get that show-stopping cookie tray without all the fuss. It’s simple, joyful baking, just how Grandma taught me!

Why These Holiday Spritz Cookies Are a Must-Try

If you’re looking to fill those festive tins without spending all day in the kitchen, these are your absolute go-to cookies. They are the perfect little bite of buttery, faintly sweet joy. Plus, they look stunning with zero complicated icing skills required! We have tons of great Dessert recipes here on the blog, but these are always the first to disappear.

• They bake up so quickly! From start to finish, you’re looking at about 30 minutes total, which is fantastic when you’re juggling so many holiday to-dos.
• The dough is sturdy enough to keep every tiny, beautiful detail pressed into the sheet.
• They offer that classic, delicate texture that instantly reminds me of my grandmother’s cookie tray.

Perfectly Shaped Holiday Spritz Cookies Every Time

This dough is special because we keep the leavening really low. That means while other cookies puff up and lose their shape in the oven, these Christmas pressed cookies hold that crisp outline of the Christmas tree or star perfectly. They are mildly sweet, too, letting that rich butter and almond flavor shine right through.

Quick Prep for Buttery Almond Cookies

I know how hectic December gets. That’s why I love that this entire batch of buttery almond cookies comes together faster than it takes most cakes to bake! You get a huge yield of gorgeous cookies in a tiny amount of active preparation time, leaving you more time to wrap gifts or, let’s be honest, sneak a few warm ones.

Gathering Your Ingredients for Holiday Spritz Cookies

Okay, let’s talk about what you need. The secret to getting that melt-in-your-mouth texture is making sure your butter is truly softened—I mean, soft enough to give way easily, but not melted or greasy looking! We need the real, unsalted kind to control the salt balance in these delicate cookies.

Gather up these essentials. You’ll notice we’re using both vanilla and almond extract because that almond helps give these buttery almond cookies a classic, slightly complex flavor that cuts through the sweetness perfectly:

• One cup of unsalted butter, and like I said, it must be softened!
• Three-quarters cup of regular granulated sugar.
• Just one nice, large egg for structure.
• One teaspoon of vanilla extract and a half teaspoon of almond extract.
• Two and a quarter cups of all-purpose flour, plus the baking powder and salt whisked together separately.

And for the fun stuff! You have the option to use a few drops of either red or green food coloring if you want to tint your dough for extra holiday cheer. Don’t forget the jar of sprinkles—we decorate these right after baking, so have them ready to go!

Essential Equipment for Cookie Press Holiday Cookies

You absolutely need the hero of this whole operation: your cookie press! Seriously, without it, these aren’t holiday spritz cookies, they’re just sad, flattened lumps. Make sure the press is clean and you have a few of those metal discs ready to go—the wreath, the tree, whatever your heart desires.

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You’ll also need sturdy mixing bowls, a good hand or stand mixer to get that butter fluffy, and clean baking sheets. A quick tip from my own messy experience: when you first start practicing, always press your test shapes onto a piece of parchment paper first. That way, if your dough is too sticky or tough to push through the plate, you don’t ruin a perfectly buttered pan!

Tips for Mastering Your Cookie Press Holiday Cookies

Here’s the secret I learned from years of wrestling with the mechanism—when you select your disc, try to pick one that doesn’t have teensy, skinny little points, especially if your dough is feeling a bit stiff. Thicker designs transfer much better. If the dough is too stiff to push through the plate, don’t panic; let your dough warm up just slightly on the counter for five minutes. Remember, we want soft, but not squishy!

Step-by-Step Instructions for Perfect Holiday Spritz Cookies

Alright, let’s get baking! These steps are exactly how I make sure my cookies come out looking like they belong in a magazine scattered around the house during the holidays. The key here is patience during the mixing phase—we don’t want to rush this buttery dough one bit. Don’t forget to check out my chocolate crinkle cookies recipe if you need another quick hit for your tray!

Mixing the Buttery Almond Cookies Dough

First things first: grab that softened butter and the granulated sugar. Beat them together until they look genuinely light and fluffy—think pale yellow, almost creamy. Now, slow down a tiny bit and mix in your egg, vanilla, and that lovely almond extract until everything is just barely combined. Don’t mix longer than you need to! In a separate bowl, whisk your flour, baking powder, and salt to aerate everything.

Now for the crucial part to keep these buttery almond cookies tender: add your dry ingredients slowly, mixing on low speed. Seriously, that’s the instruction—low speed. Stop mixing the absolute second you see no more streaks of flour. If you keep going, you’ll develop too much gluten, and your spritz cookies will be hard instead of delicate. We want soft dough!

Pressing and Baking Your Christmas Pressed Cookies

Fit your press with the Christmas disc you want to use, and press the dough directly onto your ungreased sheets. If the dough feels way too stiff and won’t budge, just let the whole thing sit on the counter for about five minutes to warm up slightly. On the flip side, if your beautiful shapes are popping up but then collapsing or not sticking to the sheet at all, pop the dough back in the fridge for ten minutes. They need to be chilled enough to hold their shape!

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Bake these beauties in your oven preheated to 375 degrees F for just 8 to 10 minutes. You’re watching for the edges to turn just barely golden. Pull them out, add your festive sprinkles immediately while they are warm and that surface is sticky, and let them rest on the sheet for five minutes before gently moving them to a rack to cool completely.

Troubleshooting Common Holiday Spritz Cookies Issues

Even with the best spritz cookies recipe, sometimes the dough has a mind of its own, right? Don’t stress! Dealing with the cookie press is usually just a matter of adjusting temperature. If your dough feels rock solid and the press handle is just squeaking, it’s too cold. It needs those fats to soften up!

Don’t try to force it, or you might snap the press mechanism. Just let that dough sit on the counter. I usually give it five minutes—no more—and it usually loosens up enough to press perfectly. Now, if you press a shape and it just sits there sadly, refusing to stick to your baking sheet, that means it’s too warm and greasy.

In that case, we do the opposite: wrap the dough tightly and pop it in the fridge for about ten minutes. That little chill firms things up so your gorgeous Christmas pressed cookies stay put when they bake. It’s all about finding that perfect happy medium for the dough!

Decorating Your Holiday Spritz Cookies for Maximum Festivity

This is honestly my favorite part of making these! Because these holiday spritz cookies are so delicate and mildly sweet, they are the perfect vehicle for sprinkles. You have to work fast here, though. The second those cookies come onto the cooling rack, they need instant decoration!

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The dough holds its shape so well that the texture is fantastic, but the surface is a little bit delicate when hot. That’s why you need to grab your sprinkles immediately after they come out of the 375-degree oven. A quick press of colored sugar or little silver nonpareils right onto the warm surface makes them stick instantly. They look gorgeous for your holiday platters!

Now, if you chose to tint your dough earlier—maybe some bright green trees and some pale pink wreaths—you’re already halfway there! Adding just one or two drops of gel food coloring works best; liquid color can actually throw off the texture of this specific buttery dough. If you’re whipping up a whole array of holiday treats this season, don’t forget to check out my recipe for hot chocolate bombs recipe. It’s another fun, quick addition to any cookie tin!

Storing Your Buttery Almond Cookies for Freshness

Because these buttery almond cookies are so delicate and have very little lifting agents, they stay wonderfully fresh! The absolute rule here is that they must be completely cool before they go anywhere near a container. If you trap any heat, you’ll end up with steam, and steam means soggy bottoms—and we absolutely cannot have soggy spritz cookies!

Once they are totally cool, you need an airtight container. Layer them carefully between sheets of parchment paper if you stack them high. Honestly, if you keep them sealed up, you can expect these beautiful holiday spritz cookies to be just as good a week later, maybe even longer. They rarely last that long in my house, though!

Frequently Asked Questions About Holiday Spritz Cookies

I get so many questions when people first try this spritz cookies recipe! It’s usually about making swaps or getting that press to behave. Don’t worry, I’ve tried everything under the sun over the years, so let me clear up a few things while you’re planning your next batch of holiday bakes.

Can I skip the almond extract in this spritz cookies recipe?

You certainly can, but you’ll be losing a little bit of that traditional flavor backbone! Those buttery almond cookies get a lot of their signature taste from that hint of almond. If you have an allergy or just don’t like it, you can substitute it 1:1 with more vanilla extract, or even try a teaspoon of lemon zest mixed in with the butter and sugar. The lemon zest really brightens up the buttery profile nicely, though it won’t be exactly the same as the original recipe!

What is the best way to get the dough to stick to the cookie sheet?

This is the biggest frustration with cookie press holiday cookies, isn’t it? The number one rule from Grandma’s book—and my kitchen lately—is: Never grease your cookie sheets for spritz cookies! If you grease them, the dough just slides right off when it starts to melt slightly in the oven, and your pretty wreath gets ruined.

If you press a shape and it immediately collapses or scoots away, it means the dough is too warm. Pop that sheet of dough into the fridge for ten minutes before pressing any more. A cold, ungreased sheet is the key to making sure your Christmas pressed cookies stay exactly where you put them!

How do I make these Christmas pressed cookies vegan?

That takes a little creativity, but it’s totally doable! Since the butter is the main fat responsible for that delicate texture, you need a really good substitute. I would recommend using a high-quality stick vegan butter alternative that you can cream properly with the sugar. For the egg, you can use a commercial egg replacer according to package directions, or sometimes just adding an extra tablespoon of milk or water helps bind those dry ingredients together without compromising the press texture too much.

Nutritional Estimates for Your Holiday Spritz Cookies

Now, while these cookies are definitely not on my list of go-, or any weekly meal planning staples, they are small enough that you can enjoy them guilt-free during the holidays! I always like to give you a rundown of the basic stuff, even though I know when we bake our holiday spritz cookies, we aren’t exactly counting macros. If you’re worried about things like keto meal plan delivery on a regular basis, these little butter bombs are best saved for festive occasions!

Here are the averages based on one cookie, using standard measurements. Keep in mind, if you swap out the butter for a non-dairy option or use heavier sprinkles, these numbers will shift a little bit. These are just ballpark figures to give you a sense of what’s in these buttery almond cookies.

• Serving Size: 1 cookie
• Calories: 85
• Total Fat: 5g (with 3g saturated fat)
• Carbohydrates: 9g
• Sugar: 5g
• Protein: 1g
• Cholesterol: 25mg

Remember, these are just estimates based on the core ingredients—the butter, flour, and sugar really drive those numbers! The important thing is that they taste like Christmas morning, and that’s a nutritional fact you can always count on!

Grandma’s Buttery Holiday Spritz Cookies

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Make delicate, buttery spritz cookies using your cookie press. These mildly sweet, festive cookies hold their shape well for holiday cookie trays.

• Author: Carla Davis
• Prep Time: 20 min
• Cook Time: 10 min
• Total Time: 30 min
• Yield: About 4 dozen 1x
• Category: Dessert
• Method: Baking
• Cuisine: American/Scandinavian
• Diet: Vegetarian

Ingredients

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• 1 cup unsalted butter, softened
• 3/4 cup granulated sugar
• 1 large egg
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/2 teaspoon almond extract
• 2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• Optional: Red or green food coloring
• Optional: Sprinkles for decorating

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Instructions

1. Beat the softened butter and sugar together in a large bowl until light and fluffy.
2. Beat in the egg, vanilla extract, and almond extract until just combined.
3. In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, and salt.
4. Gradually add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients, mixing on low speed until a soft dough forms. Do not overmix.
5. If you want colored dough, divide the dough and mix in a few drops of food coloring into each portion now.
6. Fit your cookie press with the desired disc (wreath, tree, etc.).
7. Press the dough directly onto ungreased cookie sheets. If the dough is too stiff, let it sit at room temperature for 5 minutes. If the dough is not sticking to the sheet, chill the dough for 10 minutes.
8. Bake in a preheated oven at 375 degrees F for 8 to 10 minutes, or until the edges are lightly golden.
9. Remove from the oven. Immediately decorate with sprinkles while the cookies are still warm.
10. Let the cookies cool on the baking sheet for 5 minutes before transferring them to a wire rack to cool completely.

Notes

• For best results with your cookie press, the dough should be soft but not sticky. If it is too stiff, the press will struggle to push the dough through the plate.
• If you are new to using a press, practice on parchment paper first to get the right pressure and distance from the sheet.
• These cookies are a great alternative to complicated recipes if you are looking for quick dessert options, unlike some complex meal planning schedules.
• Store cooled cookies in an airtight container.

Nutrition

• Serving Size: 1 cookie
• Calories: 85
• Sugar: 5
• Sodium: 30
• Fat: 5
• Saturated Fat: 3
• Unsaturated Fat: 2
• Trans Fat: 0
• Carbohydrates: 9
• Fiber: 0
• Protein: 1
• Cholesterol: 25