Springerle cookies were my run-away favorite Christmas treat. They were nice right out of the oven, however, the real enjoyment was only experienced after they sat a tantalizingly long period of time. To this day they are about the only anise flavored thing I like.
What a beautiful creation they are, and the aroma whilst baking …………
The art of carving the molds and rolling pins used to create these splendid cookies is something I came to appreciate later in life, but my grandmother Rose’s rolling pin was fascinating to me even as a child. It’s lost now, but the examples I’ve seen on Ken Hamilton’s website, The Springele Baker, bring memories back in abundance.
Be sure to roam through the original molds section of Ken’s site for photos of beautiful molds dating back more than 200 years. Catch the recipes section, and modern carvers …………….. actually click on every link he has – it will be time well spent.
If you happen to be time challenged you can order cookies from Ken here.
You can also order molds from Ken, Merkle, cookiemold, and Heidelberg Haus.
Other links to springerle are :
A Blog by House on the Hill - Do check this out.
Goode Cookys from Goode Cookery
Fantes.com ( for molds and rollers )
Cooks.com ( lots of recipes )
September 18, 2009
From Comments
(links coming)
Ginny wrote with memories of: pfeffernussen, pepparkakor, nusskipferln
1 response so far ↓
1 Ginny // Oct 18, 2009 at 2:08 pm
What beautiful molds. I’m not wild about anise-flavored stuff, but my favorite Christmas cookies are pfeffernussen, which contain anise along with cardamom, almond, orange, lemon, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, and black pepper., for which they’re named. My Christmas standards were always pfeffernussen, spritz cookies, hard gingerbread, pepparkakor, nusskipferln, and walnut freezer cookies. Then I’d make something chocolate and some quick drop cookies, sometimes with mince, marmalade, or candied citron. Nowadays I am too lazy to bake so many cookies, but I always make the pfeffernussen, because they’re the ones I would miss the most if I didn’t make them. Pepparkakkor are a close runner-up; they melt in your mouth, but they’re very time-consuming with all the rolling and cutting. I have my former mother-in-law’s old Swedish family recipe, and they’re excellent.
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