# Springerle Cookie Molds



## bond (Aug 16, 2005)

Hi Everyone-

Anyone here use those fancy molds for making springerle?  Do not really like using the traditional recipe since they come out as hard as a brick. Just wondering if someone can recommend other recipes that can be used with these molds. I don't like gingerbread either.

Any help will be appreciated

Thanks

Steve

By the way- if anyone has any molds they want to sell, I might be interested. Send me a PM.


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## heidiraker (Sep 2, 2010)

Hi Steve, check out www.houseonthehill.net, the company I buy springerle, speculaas and gingerbread molds and presses from. They have 500+ choices, along with hartshorn, the leaving agent that is preferred for making these exquisite embossed cookies. Owner Connie Meisinger has a book of recipes for the cookies and other edible creations using her molds (like marzipan and moldable chocolate) to create beautiful cake toppers. She also has a blog worth checking out: http://www.springerlecookies.com/page/2/. She recommends proven approaches to working with this tricky dough and shows these beautiful cookies are worth all the labor they require.


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## springerlebaker (Sep 2, 2010)

Steve, over the years that I have been researching and baking Springerle, I have discovered different recipes for Springerle. What the very first recipe was, I'm fairly clueless about. In the 1400′s and 1500′s I would tend to believe that ingredients were pretty basic: flour, eggs, a leavening agent or not, spices, flavorings and a sweetener that was most likely honey. Many German folks have sent me their old family recipes. Some recipes contained fat but most did not.

The following recipe works very well for me.

*The Recipe used by The Springerle Baker*

*Ingredients:*
1/2 teaspoon baker's ammonia (Hartshorn), 2 tablespoons water, 6 large eggs at room temperature, 6 cups sifted powdered sugar, 1/2 cup softened unsalted butter (a little more or less is okay), 1/2 teaspoon salt, 1 teaspoon flavoring of your choice (more if desired), 8 cups sifted cake flour, more flour as needed. 
*Recipe Directions:*
Dissolve hartshorn in water and set aside. Beat eggs till thick and lemon-colored (10-20 minutes). Slowly beat in the powdered sugar, then the softened butter. Add the hartshorn and water, salt, preferred flavoring, and grated rind of lemon, lime or orange, if using. Let this mixture mix on medium speed for about 30 minutes or so. At times if I'm busy I let it beat for 40 minutes or more. Gradually beat in as much flour as you can with the mixer. Turn onto floured surface and knead in enough of the remaining flour to make a good print without sticking. Some days it takes all the flour while other days it doesn't. It depends on where you live and what the weather is doing.
*For Molding Springerle:*
1). Using a clean pastry brush, dust your mold with powdered sugar. Dust mold each time cookies are pressed.
2). Roll out enough of the dough to make the cookie you are working with to a thickness of at least 1/4* on a lightly powdered sugared surface. For deep molds you will need to have your dough thicker.
3). Placing your mold on the dough, press down firmly enough to make a clear impression of the mold design. Carefully and slowly lift off the mold. If you wish, you may alternatively roll dough on surface of mold and then invert the mold and lift it off of your dough. Press dough into the mold with fingers, working from center outward being sure to get it into all the deep places.
4). Trim the cookies as you wish then carefully lift them onto your cookie sheet.
5). Let your Springerle sit 12 hours or overnight to air dry.
6). Bake as your recipe directs.
*Be sure to have good light to work by so you can tell if you've made a good impression with all of the details from your mold showing. And if you need glasses, wear em. Details become more visible as the cookie dries.
*Drying and Baking:*
After pressing your Springerle allow them to dry for between 16-36 hours before baking. This will allow the image to crust and thus prevent it from being distorted. Bake on baker's parchment-lined cookie sheets at 225* to 300* till barely golden on the bottom, 25-45 minutes or more, depending on size of cookie. I teach folks to bake them "White" like porcelain. Leave them out again over night but covered and the next day store them in airtight containers and keep them in a cool dry place. They can keep for weeks but do become hard as rocks over time. Yield 3 to 12 dozen. *For ornaments to hang on your tree, remember to add a hole at the top for a string.

See*TheSpringerleBaker.com *for more tips and advice.- Ken


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## springerlepro (Sep 3, 2010)

Hi Steve,

This recipe for springerle makes chewy cookies, not hard as rocks. And you can flavor it with any flavoring oil you want--not just anise.

The key to keeping them soft is to not over bake them (they should barely turn color on the bottom when you pull them from the oven) and you must put them in air tight containers like cookie tins or heavy plastic containers without a lot of empty air space. Do this immediately aftern they reach room temp. Stored like this they will remain chewy for several weeks. However, if you put them on a cookie plate for hours, they will dry out.

For cookie molds see www.springerlejoy.com

This recipe is from their website. You might want to cut it in half to see if you like it. To get 4.5 eggs, I beat the fifth one and pour in about 1 oz of it.

*Springerle Recipe *
*(Adapted from the Änis Paradies Recipe)*

InstanceEndEditable InstanceBeginEditable name="EditMainContent" *Ingredients*
9 eggs
2 lb powdered sugar
Flavoring options (choose one edible flavoring oil)
*¾ *tsp. anise oil -or-
¾ tsp. almond oil -or-
3 tsp. any fruit flavoring oil (orange, lemon, raspberry…)
2 lb cake flour
Parchment paper to line cookie sheets

*Preparation*
Beat the eggs well until the mixture turns into an airy crème. (About 10 minutes using a KitchenAid[emoji]8482[/emoji] 5qt. stand mixer with the wire whisk attachment.)With mixer on low, add the powdered sugar by ½ cups until all sugar is incorporated and mixture is fluffy. Add the flavoring oil. Gradually beat in ¾ of the flour on low speed.
Knead in the last quarter of the flour by hand. Do not over mix. Let the dough rest for 10 minutes.








Note: In low humidity conditions, do not knead in all the flour. Reserve about a cup. Let the dough rest 10-15 minutes. During that time, the flour in the dough will continue to absorb the liquid. You may find that you don't need to add the cup you reserved.

Divide the Springerle dough, which still will be sticky, into four parts. Cover the bowl with a damp towel to keep the dough parts moist. Take out one piece and knead in just enough flour so that it is slightly sticky. Roll out on a well floured surface so that it is 3/8 inch thick. Lightly dust the rolled dough with flour so that the dough feels like silk. Dust your Springerle mold with flour using a pastry brush. Now press the very finely dusted mold evenly into the dough and remove. Cut out the picture with a suitable pastry cutter or a knife and place on a baking sheet that has been lined with parchment paper.








After a drying period of 12-24 hours at room temperature, bake the Springerle one baking sheet at a time at approx. 300-325ºF on the very bottom rack of the oven. Very small cookies can be done in 6-8 minutes at 325°F while larger cookies may take 12-15 minutes and are best baked at 275-300°F. Cookies are done when the bottoms are a light golden brown. When baking these cookies for the first time, bake just a few on the first baking sheet and check often to see how long your cookies take to finish. Everyone's oven is different.


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