Spritz Cookies Without a Cookie Press: How to Pipe Them So They Hold Their Pattern

Yes. You can pipe spritz cookies (butter cookies) with a piping bag and a large star tip, and the result is just as ridged. A cookie press pushes the dough through a patterned disc, and a bag with a tip does the same thing, only you do the pushing by hand.

Compared with a press, a bag has one advantage and two limitations:

• More shapes. A press mostly makes sticks and S-shapes. A bag also makes flowers, rosettes, wreaths and shells.

• Limitation: softer dough. A press can handle firmer dough, while a bag needs it a little more pliable. That's why consistency is the main thing to get right (see below).

• Limitation: hand strength. Butter cookie dough is dense, so pipe in smaller batches and use a sturdy bag.

Good dough for piped cookies has the consistency of thick frosting: you can push it through the tip with a firm squeeze of your palm, but the piped mound doesn't slump and the sharp edges of the ridges stay standing.

Quick test: pipe one flower onto a plate and leave it for a minute. If the edges round off and the flower spreads outward, the dough is too soft or too warm. If it tears, breaks in the tip or you can't push it through, it's too stiff.

What affects the consistency:

1. Butter temperature. The butter should be softened, around 18–20 °C (64–68 °F): a finger leaves a dent but doesn't sink in. Melted or greasy butter is the most common reason the pattern disappears.

2. Don't cream until fluffy. For cake batters you beat butter and sugar until light and airy. Not here: the air you mix in expands in the oven and blurs the ridges. Just beat the butter and sugar until smooth, 1–2 minutes.

3. Powdered sugar, not granulated. Powdered sugar dissolves, so the dough is smooth and the edges sharper. Granulated sugar makes the dough grainy and the cookies spread more.

4. No baking powder. A leavener puffs the cookies up and smears the pattern. Spritz cookies don't need it, because the butter makes them tender.

5. Egg white or whole egg. Egg white gives a firmer, sharper shape; yolk adds more flavor but softens the dough. If your recipe uses a whole egg and your cookies spread, try just the white next time.

6. Adjust by the spoonful. Dough too soft? Add 1 tablespoon of plain flour and mix. Too stiff? Add 1 tablespoon of milk or lukewarm butter. Never chill the dough in the bowl before it goes into the bag: cold dough can't be piped and the bag will burst.

The ratio of butter to flour in spritz dough is usually around 1 : 1.2 to 1 : 1.4. More flour means it holds its shape but is tougher and harder to pipe; less flour is more tender but spreads. The same principles apply to other butter doughs, which we cover in detail in our article on why linzer cookies spread when baked.

For spritz cookies, choose a large open star tip (for sticks, S-shapes, wreaths and shells) or a drop flower tip, which makes a flower in a single squeeze. A small tip with narrow teeth is no match for dense dough: you'll push with all your might and the teeth will clog.

• An open star tip has straight, widely spaced teeth, so it makes deep, clear ridges. The JEM Open Star Decorating Tip #18 (opening about 6.5 mm) suits smaller sticks and S-shapes; for larger pieces, choose a wider star.

• A drop flower tip has teeth curled inward: squeeze, give a slight twist and you have a flower that looks like it came from a mold. The JEM Drop Flower Decorating Tip #1F (large flowers) makes big blooms that look the most like classic spritz.

• A closed star tip (teeth drawn together) makes finer, deeper grooves, but it's heavy going with stiff dough. It's better for whipped cream and usually not for spritz cookies.

• Metal, not plastic. A plastic tip can stretch under the pressure of dense dough, and the pattern loses its sharpness.

You'll find more shapes among the decorating tips. For how tips behave when you work with frosting, see the article Cake Decorating Tips: Which One for What. The same shapes work with dough, but you need more strength and a larger opening.

For spritz cookies, use a large, sturdy piping bag, around 45 cm (18 in), and fill it only halfway. A small bag needs refilling over and over, and a thin disposable one splits at the seam.

• Size: 46x26 cm piping bags leave enough room to twist the top and squeeze with your whole palm rather than your fingers.

• Fill it halfway. A full bag is hard to control, and the dough softens from the warmth of your hand. Two smaller batches are quicker than one huge one.

• A cloth bag is sturdier and lasts longer, but it soaks up butter from the dough. After each baking session, wash it in hot water with dish soap and let it dry completely, otherwise it will go rancid and smell. A disposable bag you simply throw away.

• If the bag splits: put one disposable bag inside another. The double wall will hold dense dough.

• Cut the opening precisely. About two thirds of the tip should stick out of the bag. If you cut too much, the tip pops out just when you're squeezing hardest.

Spritz cookies are best piped onto a silicone mat or a bare baking sheet, because the dough grips them and stays put when you pull the tip away. Parchment paper shifts with the dough, and the flower gets pulled off along with it.

The comparison, plainly:

• Parchment paper slides, so the dough doesn't stick and moves with the tip. Anchoring the corners to the tray with a dab of dough helps, but it's still the worst choice for flowers.

• A bare, ungreased baking sheet is the traditional choice for spritz cookies, and the dough holds very well. You just have to lift the cookies off carefully after baking, and the sheet needs washing.

• A smooth silicone mat holds the dough, releases the cookies by itself and washes easily.

• A perforated silicone mat holds the dough just like a smooth one, and thanks to its tiny holes hot air also circulates from underneath: the bottoms bake evenly and stay crisp instead of overbaking. A perforated silicone baking mat pays off when you bake tray after tray.

Don't grease the tray. Butter or oil doesn't belong under the dough: the flower would slide and melt in the oven. The butter in the dough is enough for the cookies to release.

Pipe spritz cookies with the bag held perpendicular to the tray, with the tip about 1 cm (½ in) above the mat, and at the end ease off the pressure first, then lift the tip away. If you pull before easing off, you'll drag out a peak and distort the cookie.

• Flowers (drop flower tip): squeeze, let the dough spread to about 3 cm (1¼ in) wide, ease off, and lift straight up. Turning your wrist a quarter turn gives you a swirled flower.

• Sticks and S-shapes (open star tip): hold the tip at a 45° angle and pipe in one smooth motion, 5–6 cm (2–2½ in) long.

• Wreaths: pipe a circle about 4 cm (1½ in) across, finish by crossing over the start and ease off the pressure.

• Spacing: leave 2–3 cm (about 1 in) between cookies. Good spritz dough doesn't spread much, but a little room helps the air circulate.

• Same size = same doneness. Small pieces burn before big ones finish baking. Draw circles on paper and slide it under a transparent mat, or count "one-two" with each squeeze.

• Dough in the bag softens from the warmth of your hand. When the ridges start losing their edges, set that bag aside for 5 minutes and pick up a second one.

Put the piped cookies in the freezer for 15 minutes or in the fridge for 30 minutes, because firm butter melts later in the oven, by which point the dough has started to set and the ridges stay sharp. Warm butter melts before the dough can set, and the pattern disappears.

So the order is the reverse of what you'd expect: pipe warm, bake cold. You chill the dough only once it's piped onto the tray, never beforehand in the bowl.

In practice:

• Pipe straight onto a mat or tray that fits in your freezer. While one tray chills, pipe the next.

• Put the cookies into the preheated oven straight from the freezer. Don't wait for them to warm up on the counter.

• Bake at 170–180 °C (340–355 °F) for about 10–12 minutes, until the edges turn lightly golden. For a fan oven, go 10 °C lower. Dark brown edges mean a bitter taste.

• Leave the cookies on the tray for 5 minutes to firm up, then move them to a rack. When warm they are very delicate and break.

The pattern almost always disappears for one of three reasons: the dough was warm, it had too much air in it, or it contains a leavener. A quick diagnosis:

• Flowers spread into flat discs → the butter was too soft or the piped cookies weren't chilled. Put the next tray in the freezer for 15 minutes.

• Ridges are shallow and rounded → the dough is too soft. Mix in 1–2 tablespoons of plain flour.

• Cookies are puffed up, with bubbles → you beat the butter and sugar too long, or the recipe includes baking powder.

• The dough won't push through and the bag splits → the dough is too stiff or too cold. Leave it in the kitchen for a while, or mix in a spoonful of milk.

• The dough tears in the tip and the pattern is ragged → it's too dry or has large pieces of nuts. Grind nuts for piped dough finely, in short pulses so they don't release their oil.

• Dark bottoms, pale tops → the tray is too low in the oven, or you're baking on a dark tray. Move it up a rack, or use a perforated mat.

To make chocolate, nut or two-tone spritz cookies, swap out part of the flour in the basic butter dough rather than adding something extra. Otherwise the consistency changes and the pattern is lost.

• Chocolate: replace 20–30 g of the flour with the same weight of cocoa. Cocoa absorbs more liquid, so the dough may need a spoonful of milk.

• Nut or almond: replace 50–80 g of the flour with finely ground nuts. Don't use more, because the fat from the nuts softens the dough.

• Two-tone: fill one bag with light and chocolate dough side by side (one on each side). The flowers come out marbled.

• Finishing: dip the bottoms in melted chocolate or sandwich two flowers with jam. Decorate only once they have cooled completely. For how to get chocolate glossy and smudge-free, see our article on dipping cookies in chocolate.