Traditional German Springerle Recipe
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30 minutes prep time
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30 minutes cook time
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Intermediate
Springerle biscuits are traditional aniseed and lemon flavoured German Christmas biscuits. To learn more about the biscuits' history, read "Do you know your springerle from your speculaas?"
The recipe at the base of this page is the most traditional we've come across, adapted from the 1969 Time Life book, The Cooking of Germany.
The biscuits are made from a simple flour, sugar and egg dough, flavoured with lemon zest. Whole aniseeds are scattered on the baking sheet and the cookies are placed on top of these for flavour whilst they bake. The German bakery video below is worth watching -- it gives you a good insight to how the dough will look, and how to use different types of springerle biscuit moulds.
Ingredients Serves: 10
- Softened butter for greasing
- 75g aniseeds
- 2 eggs
- 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
- Zest of 1 lemon
- 285g caster sugar
- 340g plain flour
Equipment
- 2 baking sheets
- Springerle Biscuit Roller
Method
- Grease two large baking sheets with butter, and sprinkle each with half the aniseeds.
- Beat the eggs in a stand mixer until thick and pale. Add the vanilla extract and lemon zest.
- Gradually add the sugar with the whisk running until it forms a ribbon when the whisk is lifted away. Beat in the flour, adding a quarter at a time.
- Tip out onto a floured surface and shape the dough into a ball. It will dry out very quickly at this stage, so wrap half in clingfilm whilst you work with the other half. If this is your first time making springerle biscuits, maybe just start with 1/4 of the dough as you get practised working with the moulds.
- With a floured rolling pin, roll the dough into a rectangle around 3/4cm thick.
- Sprinkle 2 tbsp of flour over your springerle rolling pin, and tap it out again. Press firmly and roll the pattern across the dough.
- Cut between the biscuits with a sharp knife or fluted pastry wheel and - using a palette knife - lift onto the greased baking sheets. Leave to dry for 24 hours.
- Heat your oven to 120C / 100 C Fan. Before baking, gently moisten the bottom of each biscuit with a little water, using your fingertips. Bake the biscuits for 20-30 minutes until firm but not brown. Lift off onto a rack to cool.
- Leave the biscuits out for a day to soften, and then place in a sealed container to keep for 1-2 weeks.
