Springerles – Questions Answered

I am no expert . . but you know that!

From what I know, I will try to answer your questions about the springerles.

Not long after I began my quest to learn to make springerle cookies, I found Springerle Joy. I ordered all the molds that I have now from there but at some point in the last few years, they went out of business. It was when I couldn’t find my molds that I decided just to order more but that was just after the Springerle Joy lady had gone out of business and no one else had taken it over. Now, someone has taken it over, preserved the recipes and videos but the sales are being done from another website.

Recipes:

The recipes I’ve liked the most are on the Springerly Joy recipe page. The Classic Springerle recipe is a good one but unless you have the super large Kitchen Aid, you’re going to need to reduce the recipe. There are other recipes around the internet and while I haven’t tried them all, I’ve never tried a recipe that didn’t work.

This is probably my all time favorite springerle recipe. It is one that uses baker’s ammonia, which I have never been able to find locally and had a heck of a time getting by mail order this year.

It’s cookie dough and I can’t imagine that any experienced baker would have any problems with a springerle recipe.

Molds/Pins:

There are fairly inexpensive springerle rolling pins available and as I’ve mentioned before, I used those for several years before I started collecting the molds, which are really more like stamps. When I think of a mold, I think of mashing the dough into a mold, then removing the dough. With what I’m using, I roll out the dough, then mash the design into the dough and cut it out.

Having said that, there are outrageously expensive rolling pins available so if you go searching for them and find some over $150, keep looking!

Drying Time:

The reason for leaving the cookies out to dry before baking, as I understand it, is for the tops to dry. I always place my cut cookies onto a lightly floured baking sheet that is lined with parchment paper. Only the tops need to dry. Do not flip them over and dry the back sides. This is so there’s a “crust” on top, which causes the cookies to only rise (and very little) from the bottom, therefore not allowing the top to rise and risk cracking.

Depending on the humidity, I usually leave my cookies out at least 12 hours. When we lived in MO before, I’d leave them out overnight. In Texas, where we had very little humidity, I would usually leave them out 6 or 8 hours. Play it by ear. Some days, it’s humid outside but the heat is running. Some days it isn’t humid and I planned to bake them after 6 hours, got sidetracked and they sat til the next day.

How Long Do The Cookies Last?

Not long around here. I’ve read that they will last for months.I actually leave the cookies sitting out or in a paper bag. They will lose a bit of their “crispness” if stored in plastic bags.

I only make them once or twice a year because I want these to be the special cookies we look forward to having at Christmas. I have a Jim Shore Nativity Set for 25 years ago. One year, I decided that I loved it so much, I was going to leave it out all year. When Christmas came around again, I was kinda sad because the joy and excitement of putting the nativity set up wasn’t there so now, I make sure that seasonal things that thrill me, I put them away and get them back out.

As far as the cookies, I usually give away more than we keep. Even knowing just a few people here, I’ve given away over half of the cookies I made this week. It’s the joy of baking and the joy of giving combined!

Making these cookies is one of those things that you may fret about but don’t . . just do it. It had been I think four years since I had made them because of the missing molds and I kept talking myself out of trying because I was apprehensive about making them. They’re really so very easy to make.