Tips & Techniques

If you are struggling with springerle in the heat and humidity, but you don’t have a dehydrator, here are a few tips that might aid you!

1) Turn the air conditioner way down to mid 60’s to dry the cookies.

2) Break your eggs into a bowl and make sure they weigh in total no more than 9 ounces. (i.e. a large egg usually weighs about 1.5 ounces) This is using my recipe which calls for 6 eggs.

3) Dry the cookies for 36 hours, especially if they are large cookies.

4) Remember not to make the cookies when it is raining or you are really going to have to abuse your air conditioning system!

Connie

Do NOT use silicone mats for baking springerle cookies!  They are wonderful for baking many things, especially soft gooey cookies, like chocolate chip cookies or fudgy drop cookies. But the problem is that with springerle  you want the steam to escape from the bottom of the cookie while it is baking and silocone mats do not allow this to happen. If the steam does not escape from the bottom, it has to go somewhere and it will puff out the sides, or worse, the steam will break through the top of the cookie and thus impact the beautiful print on the top surface of the springerle.

I don’t like insulated cookie pans for baking springerle! At first I thought it was just my timer, and then maybe my oven was too hot, and then perhaps I was not paying attention. But, no, really,  I have now kept copious notes and springerle cookies really do overbake on insulated sheets. I have tested on heavy duty commercial sheet pans against insulated cookie sheets using the same time and temperature and they always overbrown on the bottoms and are too dry when I use the insulated cookie sheets.  So , while I am a fan of insulated cookie sheets for soft gooey cookies, such as classic chocolate chip cookies, I recommend that you do NOT use them for springerle baking. Stick to regular heavy duty cookie sheets for best results.

Happy Baking!

Connie

It’s summer and you want to bake springerle for your niece’s wedding? You need  a little Christmas in July? You live in a tropical climate all year?

Then you will love this great idea for Springerle from Vicky Shoup! Vicky lives in a midwest area that has hot sticky summers, but has solved the drying problem that makes the summer making of Springerle so very tricky.  I have advised bakers in the past to turn their air conditioners down to 60 degrees and turn on the dehumidifier. This works, but uses lots of power! Vicky dries the formed springerle in her Excalibur dehydrator for several hours at the lowest setting. (She uses a longer time for larger cookies;she makes time adjustments for both size and thickness.)  The cookies should be placed on a solid sheet, not a rack. The front cover of the dehydrator needs to be ajar to allow air circulation and to keep the temperature lower. Check  cookies often to make sure they are not too warm.  If they get too warm, turn off the dehydrator and open its door.   She checks the drying cookies after several hours and insures that a “crust ” has dried on the top and that there is still an area of moist dough in the center of the bottom surface. If the cookies get too dry on the bottom, you can brush a small amount of water on the bottom of the cookies before baking. Thus, the pattern is set and she is able to bake the cookies on the same day, even in the most humid conditions.

This is a great idea and I am anxious to try this technique.   This is a bonus for  you Florida bakers who have gotten so frustrated that you are unable to successfully make Springerle.

Thank you Vicky!!

Lorna, I am in southern California celebrating the birth of my second grandson. What an exciting, busy and wonderful event! Things are a little more settled down here than they were a few days ago. So to your question regarding “mushroom springerle.” [click to continue...]

This entry was prompted by the comment from Terri. Thanks, Terri, for bringing up this important question. Historically, Springerle cookies would not have been made until after the first hard freeze. Why? Simply because a hard freeze zaps the humidity out of the air and the cookies will keep better when the air temperature is cooler. [click to continue...]

The absolutely most beautiful springerles will be created using single presses, but of course, creating each cookie individually will take more time. The other option is to use a multiple press or a rolling pin which will emboss many cookies with one pressing. [click to continue...]

Do you ever have a back ache the next day after pressing your springerle cookies? [click to continue...]

This is a piece of infromation that might be useful……anise oil will MELT your plastic measuring spoons, so be sure to use metal measuring spoons! And yes, I speak from experience!  I really prefer oils over flavorings for springerle, as they have a much cleaner taste. The oils are also much more intense, so you need far less oil than flavoring.