Almond Spritz Cookies

Almond spritz cookies are a tasty buttery cookie that practically melts in your mouth. Especially popular around the holidays like Christmas, these cookies are always a welcomed sweet.

This is a cookie recipe that we bring out every once in a while and it’s not hard to see why. With simple steps and great results, these cookies are almost as much fun to make as they are to eat. They never last long around here and are always gone in a flash.

You’re going to love this incredible spritz cookie recipe. It’s super simple and easy to make, using just a few ingredients and moments of your time to make the soft dough.

Note that you will need a cookie press for this as this is a type of cookie that is pressed out onto baking sheets in fun shapes.

Ingredients

• Butter: This will make your dough richer in taste and give it that melt-in-your-mouth factor that we're looking for.
• Powdered sugar: This keeps the dough smooth and sweet.
• Egg yolks: You want to use egg yolks because they help to give a great texture, binding, and richer flavor throughout the dough.
• Vanilla extract: A flavor enhancer to help create a base for the other flavors to branch off of.
• Almond extract: This is where the “almond” flavor comes from in our cookies.
• Flour: All-purpose flour is the base of the dough.
• Salt: A natural flavor enhancer that will make the flavors really stand out and taste incredible.

See the recipe card for specific quantities needed.

How to Make Almond Spritz Cookies

1. Preheat your oven to 375 degrees F.
2. In a mixing bowl, cream together the butter and powdered sugar until the mixture is a pale yellow.
3. Add in the egg yolks, vanilla extract, almond extract, and salt, mixing until well combined.
4. Add in the flour and then mix again until just combined, the dough should be barely sticky.
5. Put your dough into your cookie press and hold the press perpendicular to the cookie sheet, so that it is touching the cookie sheet.
6. Press once and lift up the press. The dough should stick to the parchment paper and easily remove itself from the cookie press.
7. Fill the cookie sheet with more pressed cookies making sure to leave a 1 ½ inch space between each one.
8. Bake in the oven for 7-9 minutes or until they are a light golden brown.

Substitutions

• Extracts: If desired you can use all almond extract instead of vanilla and get a stronger almond flavor. Alternatively, you can also use all vanilla extract and omit the almond flavor completely. Swapping out the almond extract for any other extract flavor will also change the flavor of these cookies so you can make them taste however you want.
• Eggs: If you only have one egg on hand, you can use one large egg instead of two egg yolks. Just note that the flavor will be better with two yolks than it is with one egg. This is because egg yolks are what bind the dough together and create a richer flavor while the egg whites don’t have nearly as much of an impact.
• Sugar: Regular granulated sugar can be used in place of the powdered sugar. To do this, you'll need to blend the granualted sugar into powder. For every cup of ground granulated sugar add in 1 tablespoon of powdered sugar. Measure the amount of DIY powdered sugar as it's listed in the recipe.

Variations

• Colors: For fun variations on these cookies, try decorating spritz cookies with food coloring. If you’re making these for Christmas, dividing the dough and adding green or red coloring can really help to make them more festive.
• Sprinkles: To add sprinkles to your cookies, top them with sanding sugar or Jimmies after you press the cookies to the baking sheet, but before baking. The sprinkles will bake onto the tops of the cookies and look awesome. This is a great idea for matching party themes or adding fun colors.
• Jam: Another great idea is to make spritz cookies with jam. To do this just make sure to use a cookie press shape that allows for fillings to be added. Then press the cookies and bake as directed. After the cookies have been baked, fill a bag with jam and snip the corner. Pipe into the center of the cookies and allow them to cool before serving.

Recipe Tips

• Do not chill your dough. Chilling the dough will cause the dough to become harder which in turn will make it practically impossible to pipe out through your cookie press. You want the dough to be soft. That said, if you live in a hot and humid area, you can chill the pressed cookies on the baking sheet before baking if desired.
• Don’t skip the creaming. You want to cream the butter and sugar together until soft and fluffy because this is what’s going to help the cookies remain puffy while baking. There is no leavening in these cookies so this step is very important. It’s also important not to overmix once the flour has been added. Just mix until no flour streaks remain.
• Don’t overload the cookie press. Make sure you do not add in too much cookie dough at one time (as tempting as that may be). Overfilling it will cause a huge mess and could cause some plastic cookie presses to break.

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