The batter is too thick for the cookie press. What can I use to thin it?
Spritz cookie dough is supposed to be thick. Why do you think it needs to be thinner?
~VOW
Because it won’t come out of the cookie press. I think I will try adding milk.
The butter in the dough may be too hard. Let the dough come to room temperature.
If the dough gets too wet, you’ll have a goopy mess on the cookie sheet, instead of the shaped cookies typical of the cookie press.
The dough has to STICK to the cookie sheet. No PAM or shortening or any type of slick surface of the cookie sheet. If the dough doesn’t stick, you’ll pull up the cookie press, and the glob of dough will still be on the press, and there will be nothing on the cookie sheet.
~VOW
I am glad someone who knows all about this read my post so quickly. Are you a chef or just like to cook cookies?
Just a cookie lover, LOL.
I tried to bake spritz cookies shortly after I got married. I figured they were just cookies, and I did all my typical cookie sheet prep.
The damned things wouldn’t stick. I ended up throwing myself across the bed and crying my eyes out.
I think I even threw the dough away.
Years later, I talked to my mother-in-law, who could make spritz cookies with one hand tied behind her back. She explained about the dough having to actually STICK to the cookie sheet. Because there is so much butter in the dough, once the cookie is baked, the butter that melts out enables you to remove the cookie from the cookie sheet.
She told me after you bake the first cookie sheet-full, you have to wash the cookie sheet and then PUT IT IN THE REFRIGERATOR before using it with the cookie press again. The butter which melted out of the first batch has to be removed completely, and then you chill the cookie sheet to help the dough stick again.
If the cookie sheet is too hot, the butter in the dough will melt immediately, and then the damned things won’t stick properly.
~VOW
Best if you have several cookie sheets so you can keep a couple in the refrigerator while your current batch is baking. It takes experience to learn when the dough is the right consistency to go through the press and stick to the cookie sheet. Don’t get frustrated as VOW did; be prepared for some trial-and-error. Better the dough is too cold than too warm, but it does have to be warm enough to extrude. And definitely wash the sheet thoroughly between each batch.
Next time you make spritz cookies, either sift the flour before measuring a couple of times, or add the last of the flour so it doesn’t get too thick. You can always add a teaspoon of flour at a time but once too much is in the batter it is just too late. You could chill the batter and cut it thin, instead of using the Press but they won’t be as good,but you won’t waste the batter. I was a cook for Stouffers restaurant in Chicago Years ago… Good luck!
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Moved to Cafe Society, where all of the other yummy, yummy food threads live.
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This gives me newfound praise for my late Mom’s baking skills. She made all kinds of Christmas cookies, and I remember the spritzes being my favorite!
I made them with double cream butter one year and nearly had people camped outside my door wanting more.
Wow…thanks for all the great advice! I tend to get bake-happy AFTER the holidays, and…I believe I will try spritzes! I had no idea the preparation was that…finicky!
I bake spritz cookies fairly often, and I can confirm everything that VOW said; excellent posts VOW!