Baking maven Rose Levy Beranbaum has an elegant trick (which she further attributes to cookbook author Sally Longo) that prevents such tough cookies: cornstarch. As Levy Beranbaum writes in The Baking Bible, replacing a little bit of the flour in the dough with cornstarch results in “a more delicate cookie that is also easier to pipe or push through a cookie press.” Adding cornstarch helps tenderize tough gluten, contributing to a softer cookie dough with a finer crumb after it’s been baked.
The Baking Bible
By Rose Levy Beranbaum
Indeed, her recipe—which has nearly a 1:1 ratio of flour to butter and draws extra flavor from both vanilla and almond extracts, in addition to ground almonds—pipes and presses like a dream. Dare I say, these spritz cookies are as smooth as smooth jazz.
Of course, cornstarch isn’t made of magic. You’ll still need to be careful to avoid overmixing, so whether you’re using a stand mixer or food processor—either will work equally well—be sure to add the flour at the very end and mix until it is just barely incorporated. Levy Beranbaum then suggests dumping the dough out onto a sheet of plastic wrap and using the edges of the plastic to very gently knead the dough until it’s hom*ogenous and soft enough to work with.
Arguably, the best part of spritz cookies is shaping and decorating them. If your kitchen abhors a unitasker, like mine does, you can absolutely pipe the dough with a pastry bag into whatever shape you want before baking. (I like wreaths because I am a freak for holiday spirit and extra cheesy to boot.) But a cookie press is just stupid fun—especially if you’re the type of baker who enjoys extruding their cookies into little Christmas trees and butterflies and cherry blossoms, or if you utilize child labor (voluntarily!) during holiday cookie season.
Oxo Good Grips 14-Piece Cookie Press Set
To top off your cookies, Levy Beranbaum suggests decorative sugar or dragées, and glacéed cherries tucked into the center of spritz swirls. But I also do as my mom did and dip them in chocolate, alternating with sprinkles of crushed pistachios and almonds.
I may not be as efficient as an industrial cookie-making machine, but there is something intensely calming about piping and pressing out these cookies on a sheet pan, one after the other. I’m not exactly turning my brain off, but focusing its ceaseless energy in a mindful rhythm, sweeping aside the monkey-mind worries of the day, and of the past year and a half.
When holiday madness threatens to overwhelm, try to embrace that rhythm yourself—but the Kenny G is optional.
