Iced Cranberry Spritz Cookies
Buttery and sweet, these cranberry spritz cookies get a tangy kick from the addition of dried cranberries, which also gives them a moist texture. Lightly dipped in a simple glaze, they’re pretty enough for gifting.
By Yankee Magazine|Oct 02 2016|
Iced-Cranberry Spritz Cookies
Photo Credit: Heath RobbinsButtery and sweet, these cranberry spritz cookies get a tangy kick from the addition of dried cranberries, which also gives them a moist texture. Lightly dipped in a simple glaze, they’re pretty enough for gifting.
Yield
about 4 dozen cookies
Total Time
1 hour 10 minutes minutesHands-on Time
50 minutes minutes
For the cookies:
Ingredients
3/4 cup dried sweetened cranberries
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
2/3 cup granulated sugar
1 large egg yolk
1/2 teaspoon table salt
2 cups all-purpose flour
2-4 drops red food coloring
Instructions
Preheat your oven to 350° and set racks to the top and bottom thirds of the oven.
Put the cranberries in the bowl of a food processor and pulse until they’re very finely ground and beginning to clump together. Use a spatula to redistribute the cranberries as needed if they’re trapped under the blades. Add the butter and continue pulsing until smooth.
In a large mixing bowl, using a standing or handheld mixer, cream the sugar with the cranberry butter. Add the egg and salt and beat to combine. Decrease the speed to low and add the flour, a little at a time, until fully combined. Add the food coloring, one drop at a time, until you achieve your desired shade of pink or red.
Pack the dough into a cookie press with the disc design of your choice. (Don’t refrigerate the dough; it’s best when soft.) Press the cookies out onto ungreased cookie sheets. Bake until the cookies are golden at the edges, 9 to 11 minutes. Remove from the sheets and cool on wire racks.
For the glaze:
Ingredients
1 cup confectioners’ sugar
2 tablespoons milk
Instructions
While the cookies are cooling, stir the confectioner’s sugar and milk together in a small bowl until smooth. When the cookies are cool, dip each one, upside-down, lightly into the glaze; then return them to the wire racks to dry.
Is half tsp. salt correct?
Hi Annemarie. Yes, 1/2 teaspoon is correct.
As a Scandinavian I’ve been baking spritz cookies for over 30 years and this cranberry recipe is a fantastic addition to the spritz catalog. The subtlety of the tartness of the cranberry and the intense sweetness of the frosting is perfect. Our family recipe for spritz has the following changes: 3 egg yolks, 1/2 tsp each of almond and vanilla and baking at 400 degrees for 6 min. Great job, we love the recipe.
What type of cookie press do you recommend? I have a hard time pressing these with mine.
Love this site
These sound unique and delicious!I just bought a new Nortic Ware cookie press too..happy holidays,during this pandemic we may have restictions but holiday food can surely make a difference!Thanks Yankee Magazine for continuing a great magazine with traditional ideas and a fresh perspective for New Englanders.
Do these freeze well?
Hi there! We haven’t tried freezing these cookies, but imagine that if you popped the sheet trays into the freezer right after pressing the cookies into their shapes, the cookies would freeze well for up to a month. Make sure to let the cookies come to room temperature before baking, though. Happy baking!
I don’t have a spritz gadget. Can these be made without it? Maybe small balls, flatted a bit(?). Has anyone tried?
If you have a piping bag and some type of star tip you could pipe them onto the pans.
Can you make these with 1 to 1 gluten free flour?