Cider-Cinnamon Spritz Cookies

Somehow or other, I always end up making some kind of spritz cookies for the holiday season; with plenty of good reason(s).

The first is that they are minimal on the ingredients. I probably have most of them on hand in my kitchen at any given time. The second, is that the dough is extremely easy and quick to put together. Most of my cookie recipes require overnight rests in the fridge to turn out best, which turns it into a two-day process. Not spritz cookies; at most, they require a mere 20 minutes or so chilling time in the fridge, after which they’re ready to be pressed out and baked.

Another reason I always come back to them during the holiday season is that most spritz cookie recipes come in ‘bulk’ in the sense that most of the plates on a cookie press/gun make bite sized cookies, which considering the amount of dough that gets made in most of the recipes means that you’ll get a pretty decent sized batch, which is ideal for holiday baking batches.

Third, most spritz cookies are Blank Canvas recipes in these sense that, you can add different spices/flavors to them that will take what’s an already pretty delicious butter cookie, and give it an added twist.

I’ve proven/done this multiple times before on the blog, and also multiple times before for the 12 Days of Christmas. And wouldn’t you know it, I’m back with another holiday-style twist on my beloved spritz dough.

Truthfully speaking, I was planning on making these much earlier in the autumn, but life got in the way and I wasn’t able to get around to it until recently. But it all worked out for the best anyway because it allowed me to make a few additional tweaks to the recipe to make it even more holiday-spiced/themed.

I’d certainly heard of it before, but boiled cider is a unique ingredient that I only recently made for the first time and started using for myself. In short, boiled cider is exactly what it sounds like: you pour a big jug of apple cider into a pot and boil it down for a good long WHILE on the stovetop, until it reduces by more than half into a thickened, syrupy concentrate that you can use as a flavor enhancer to things like tea, oatmeal, an ice cream sundae topping, etc.

As you might’ve also guessed, you can also bake some pretty nifty things with it.

You can buy boiled cider from specialty shops like King Arthur Flour, or you can just do what I did and make your own. It’s not exactly quick, but it is easy (see method below), and the recipe I’ve provided makes a big enough batch that will go a LONG way, seeing as most recipes only use a few tablespoons at a time, and you can keep/store it in the fridge.

These ingredients list for this recipe is short, sweet and simple, but don’t let that give you the wrong idea. The boiled cider is truly the star ingredient that you cannot do without in these. It gives the cookies such a warm, spicy flavor that is even further bolstered by the addition of the spices in the flour mix. The dough comes together in minutes, and after a brief chill in the fridge it’s ready to be pressed out.

DO NOT SKIP THE STEP OF CHILLING THE BAKING SHEETS.

This is a really important step that can make the difference as to whether or not your cookies even come out of the press, and whether or not they maintain their pretty shape. So, I repeat: do not skip the step of chilling the baking sheets.

The texture of the cookies themselves is just what you want from a butter cookie: short, crisp and buttery. They’re the perfect accompaniment to coffee or tea, they keep VERY well in sealed plastic bags and will do the same if you’re aiming to ship them.

Dont’ forget to check out the other recipes we’ve done so far for this year’s 12 Days of Christmas–and stay tuned for many more yummy treats to come 😉

Day 1: Browned Butter & Sweet Potato Biscuits

Day 2: Biscoff Dipped Butter Cookies

Day 3: Holiday French Toast

Day 4: Gingerbread Cinnamon Rolls

Day 5: Cider-Cinnamon Spritz Cookies

Cider-Cinnamon Spritz Cookies

Recipe Adapted from King Arthur Flour

Ingredients

16 tablespoons (227g) unsalted butter, at room temperature
3/4 cup (149g) granulated sugar, plus more for sprinkling
half an 8-ounce package (113g) cream cheese, at room temperature
3/4 teaspoon table salt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1/8 teaspoon allspice
1 tablespoon boiled cider*
2 3/4 cups (292g) cake flour

Directions

Preheat the oven to 375°F. Chill two ungreased and unlined baking sheets. (I place mine in the freezer for about an hour before I intend to bake)

In a medium bowl combine the flour, cinnamon, ginger, allspice and salt. Mix together with a fork and set aside.

In the bowl of a standing mixer, or in a large bowl using a handheld mixer fitted with the beater paddles, beat together the butter, sugar, cream cheese, vanilla, and cider.

Add the flour mixture in two batches. If the dough is very soft, chill it for 20 minutes before using.

Fill a cookie press two-thirds full and pipe cookies onto the chilled baking sheets according to the press directions. Sprinkle with additional sugar, if desired.

Bake the cookies for 9 to 11 minutes, until they’re lightly browned around the edges. Remove them from the oven and cool on the pan for 5 minutes before transferring to a rack to finish cooling completely.

Note: no one oven is the same, & different baking sheets bake cookies differently. Keeping this in mind, I will ALWAYS test bake one cookie before baking entire sheets of the whole batch, just to get a good idea of how long they should be in the oven and if I need to adjust the way I’ve cut, rolled them out, etc. I highly recommend that you do the same.

*If you do not have a cookie press, once you have finished mixing the dough, divide and mold it into 2 long, rectangular logs. Tightly wrap the logs in plastic wrap and shape into a square shape. (I used these molds, but using a bench scraper or the inside of a 13 x 9 baking dish works as well). If using the molds, press the plastic wrapped log into the molds, then refrigerate both overnight.)

Remove the logs from the molds and unwrap. Using a sharp knife or bench scraper, slice cookies about 1/4 inch thick (or to your desired preference). Place about 1 inch apart on prepared pans and sprinkle tops with sugar. (Depending on how thick you cut them, this makes quite a few cookies; you’ll probably have to do this in a few batches)

Bake for 10-12 minutes, until golden brown.

*To make boiled cider: Pour about a gallon of apple cider into a large, sturdy pot. Add two cinnamon sticks. Bring the cider to a boil over medium heat. Once boiling, turn the heat to low and let it simmer for 5 to 6 hours, giving a couple of quick stirs twice every hour. Starting around hour five, stir more frequently — every 15 minutes or so. The cider will boil down to about 1/8 of its original volume. It’s done ready/done when when you stir it and dark copper-colored bubbles form, covering the entire surface.