History
Sprits or spritskoek is a piped butter cookie, which has been baked and eaten in the Netherlands since the sixteenth century. From 1886, the Utrecht baker Bergmans developed his personal specialty: the Utrechtse Spritsen. The Utrechtse Spritsen distinguishes itself by the shape of the dough piped in long strips, wich are sliced immediately after baking.
Origin
The origin is not exactly clear. As the Spritzkuchen (which means ‘’piped pastry’’ in German), may have been introduced by the German. However, it may also be a Dutch invention, as spritsen in Dutch dialects and in painting jargon means sprinkling, finely divided spraying or splashing.
Shape & Texture
Spritsen are made of a so called ‘rubbed dough’ wich gives the cookies the typical soft texture before piping the dough and a short, buttery texture once baked. In traditional bakeries the Dutch Sprits Cookies – Utrechtse Spritsen are often piped with a special pastry syringe because of the toughness of the dough.
Ingredients for 15 Dutch Sprits Cookies
- 200g soft butter or margarine
- 100g caster sugar
- 2 tbsp milk of choice
- 2 tsp vanilla sugar (8g)
- 1/4 tsp salt (3g)
- 250g all-purpose flour
Materials
- Baking sheet
- Baking paper
- Mixing bowl
- Electric mixer
- Paddle attachment
- Dough scraper
- Pastry syringe or piping bag
- Serrated piping tip
- Knife
How it’s done!
1. Preheat the oven to 175°C/320°F and line the baking tin with baking paper.
2. Add soft butter or margarine, the sugars, salt and milk to a mixing bowl or on your countertop. Mix it together with the electric mixer or with your hands until incorporated.
3. Sieve the flour above the mixture and mix/knead it until a nice dough forms.
4. If using the electric mixer then transfer the Sprits dough on the kitchen counter. Rub the dough away from you and towards you a couple of times with your hand palms. You will see that the structure of the cookie dough gets smoother.
5. Transfer the Sprits dough to a pastry syringe or piping bag with serrated piping tip. If you have a pastry syringe then use that one because the cookie dough is quite firm and needs quite some force to be piped. (Maybe this is where the ‘’though cookie’’ originated from. 😉)
6. Pipe 3 zigzagged strips of Sprits dough on the prepared baking tray. Bake for 15-20 minutes until golden brown.
7. Cut off the ends of each strip of Sprits and slice the rest of each strip of Sprits into 5 even pieces. Make sure to do this within 2 minutes of taking it out of the oven. Otherwise the cookies will already be set and break.
Tip: Optionally Spritsen can be half dipped in chocolate to make them extra tasty!
Storage instruction: Once the cookies are completely cooled down, you can keep them for at least a week in a cookie tin or airtight container.
If you liked these typically Dutch cookies, you might like Roze Koeken – Dutch Pink Cakes and Kruidnootjes (Dutch spiced mini cookies) too!
Did you make these Dutch Sprits Cookies – Utrechtse Spritsen? Let me know in the comments down below if you liked them and feel free to drop any questions or suggestions. I’d love to see your creations. So share them with me @Talesofpastry (Insta + FB) or Tales-Of-Pastry (Reddit).
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