Lemon-Poppyseed Spritz Cookies
Submitted by ErikaD
Lemon poppyseed spritz cookies are pressed into star and swirl shapes, baked tender, then iced with a pale lemon glaze and finished with a poppyseed sprinkle.
YIELD
72 servingsPREP
30 minCOOK
30 minREADY
60 minSpritz cookies live and die by the press. Pulling the trigger on a cookie press, you get ridged stars, flowers, and swirls that look like they came from a bakery window. This Scandinavian-rooted holiday tradition turns into something brighter here with the addition of lemon zest, lemon extract, and a spiraled glaze topped with poppyseeds.
Dough temperature is the whole secret. Too warm and it squishes out the press in shapeless blobs. Too cold and it cracks and refuses to extrude. Room-temperature butter creamed with sugar gives the right consistency. If the dough feels too soft, chill briefly. Too firm, let it sit out a few minutes.
Bake on an ungreased, room-temperature sheet pan. Greased pans make the dough slide off the press before it sticks; warm pans melt the butter on contact and you lose definition.
The icing technique is clever. A thin glaze piped from a snipped-corner ziploc bag lets you draw fine spirals from center out, like a tiny galaxy on each cookie. Poppyseeds sprinkled on the wet icing stick where you want them.
Pro Tips
- Don’t overmix the flour. Spritz cookies should be tender, not tough. Mix on low just until smooth.
- Practice with one cookie before pressing a whole tray. Adjust the press setting if your shapes are blobby or torn.
- Cool completely before icing. Warm cookies melt the glaze and you lose the crisp spiral lines.
Variations
- Swap lemon for orange extract and zest, and use orange food coloring for citrus variety.
- Roll edges in colored sugar before baking for a holiday-ready trim instead of using icing.
- Skip the icing entirely and sandwich two cooled cookies with lemon curd for spritz cookie sandwiches.
Ingredients
Directions
Thoroughly cream butter or margarine and sugar.
Add egg, vanilla, lemon extract and lemon zest; beat well.
Sift together flour and baking powder; add gradually to creamed mixture, mixing to a smooth dough.
Force dough through cooky press, using a star or swirl shape, onto ungreased baking sheet.
Bake in hot oven, 400℉ (200℃) for 8 to 10 minutes.
Cool.
Icing: Sift the powdered sugar and add the lemon extract.
Add the milk a little at a time.
You want the result to be a thin frosting.
Add yellow food coloring and stir until blended.
You want the color of the frosting to be paler than the color of the cookies.
When the cookies are completely cool, put the frosting into a small ziploc bag.
Cut a small hole in one corner, and squeeze the bag to force the thin frosting out the hole.
Starting in the center of each cookie, make a sprial of frosting going out toward the edges of the cookie.
Sprinkle with poppy seeds, and let the icing set.
Comments
