Spritz cookies are buttery, almond flavored cookies made with a cookie pressed. A Betty Crocker classic, now made Lectin Free Gourmet with a few swaps.
Spritz cookies are special. They're made with a cookie press (mine is from the 70s) and squeezed into Christmas shapes like trees and wreaths. Spritz cookies are rich and buttery with the distinct flavor of almond extract. The bite-sized cookies are light and airy and melt in your mouth.
Spritz cookies make the perfect, one-bite Christmas cookie to pile on a dessert plate. Your guests can easily gumdrop three or four without batting an eye. And because they're lectin free, they will sit very nice in the belly.
As early as Kindergarten, I remember going to Christmas cookies exchange parties with my mom. There were always a lot of rice crispy treats, a few Russian tea cookies and mostly sugar cookies in a wide variety of interpretations. Those were all good. But, my mom was always the only one to bring spritz cookies, and boy were they popular. These cookies require special equipment and a bit of patience and finesse to get spritz just right. Once you master the technique, though, you never forget.
I've been making these since my teens, usually with food coloring and candy sprinkles. I couldn't resist the urge to decorate just a few for the picture. Hey, it's Christmas. What's a couple green sugar sprinkles?!?!? These are (mostly) Plant Paradox compliant and paleo. I made them with my special LFG flour blend, granular Swerve, almond extract, French cultured butter (or grassfed ghee), an egg, a touch of honey and a little special sweetened condensed goat milk I made for my Christmas treat recipes. Let's get to making these. You'll need a cookie press for these so if you don't have one, pick one up at Sur la Table or Williams Sonoma.
The Recipe
LFG Spritz Cookies
1/2 C French Cultured Butter or Ghee Softened
1/3 C Swerve Granules
1 Egg
1 t Pure Almond Extract
1 1/4 C LFG Flour Blend*
1/2 t Xanthan Gum
1/4 C LFG Sweetened Condensed Goat Milk (or just Goat Milk)
1 Tiny Pinch Salt
* 2:1:1 cassava, coconut and blanched almond flours
Step 1: Beat Ingredients Together
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a medium bowl, cream together butter and Swerve. Add egg and almond extract and beat until creamy. Add flour, Xanthan gum, goat milk (or sweetened condensed if you have it and a tiny pinch of salt. Blend ingredients well.
Step 2: Press the Dough into Shapes
Line a cookie sheet with parchment. Select the holiday shapes you'd like for your cookies. I chose trees and wreaths. Divide the dough into the number of shapes you've selected. Load the press with dough and press out a sheet of your first shape. I find that twisting the press 1/4 turn is plenty of dough. Then roll the press away from you to get a clean break. Since it's Christmas I sprinkled a tiny bit of green sugar on about one-fourth of my cookies. 'Tis the season and it's just a smidge, so it can't hurt this once.
Step 3: Bake & Repeat
Bake the spritz cookies for 8 minutes. They will be slightly brown on the bottom and just a tiny bit brown on top. Repeat the process until you've used all your dough and made all the shapes you've chosen.
P.S. I made sweetened condensed goat milk to have on hand for my LFG Christmas fudge, and I had a little leftover. It worked great for this recipe, but if you don't want to bother reducing goat milk (it's a process), then just use regular goat milk or whatever compliant milk you prefer.
Enjoy!