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| Top, Raw springerle dough, just out of the wooden wedding-carriage mold Center, Springerle dough after drying for a day. Bottom, Baked springerle, showing typical "foot". |
Springerle is a type of German biscuit with an embossed design made by pressing a mold
onto rolled dough and allowing the impression to dry before baking.
This preserves the detail of the surface pattern. They are most commonly
seen during the Christmas season.
The name springerle means "little jumper" or "little knight". Their origin can be traced back to at least the 14th century in southwestern Germany and surrounding areas, mostly in Swabia.
The major ingredients of Springerle are eggs, white (wheat) flour, and very fine or powdered sugar. The biscuits are traditionally anise-flavored, although the anise is not usually mixed into the dough; instead it is dusted onto the baking sheets so that the biscuit sits on top of the crushed anise seeds.
Traditional Springerle recipes use hartshorn salt (ammonium carbonate, or baker's ammonia) as a leavening agent. Since hartshorn salt can be difficult to find, many modern recipes use baking powder
as the leavening agent. Springerle made with hartshorn salt are lighter
and softer than those made with baking powder. The hartshorn salt also
imparts a crisper design and longer shelf-life to the Springerle. To
make Springerle, very cold, stiff dough is rolled thin and pressed into a
mold, or impressed by a specialized, carved rolling pin. The dough is
unmolded and then left to dry for about 24 hours before being baked at a
low temperature on greased, anise-dusted baking sheets.
The leavening causes the biscuit to at least double in height during
baking. This "pop-up" effect may be the source of the name in German,
and produces the characteristic "foot" along the edges, below the molded
surface.
The baked biscuits are hard, and are packed away to ripen for two or three weeks. During this time, they become tender.
"Connie Meisinger of House on the Hill Cookie Molds
shows how to make the perfect Springerle cookie
Molds are traditionally carved from wood, although plastic and
pottery molds are also available. Pear wood is prized for its density
and durability. Older handmade molds are folk art and are typically unsigned and undated.
The stamping technique may be derived from the molds used in some Christian traditions to mark sacramental bread,
and the earliest molds featured religious motifs, including scenes from
Bible stories and Christian symbols. Later, in the 17th and 18th
century, heraldic themes of knights and fashionably dressed ladies
became popular. Themes of happiness, love, weddings, and fertility
remained popular through the 19th century.
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| Springerle cookies originally displayed biblical scenes and were used to
teach the illiterate about the Bible. Eventually, the cookies were
decorated with secular scenes depicting images of life events, such as
marriages and births Left, Springerle mold from the Landesmuseum Württemberg and Right, This mold shows a wedding carriage and many figures. |
More About Springerle Cookie Molds:
- Springerle Joy
- The Springerle Baker
- The Springerle House
- Hand Carved Picture-Cookie Molds
- Anis Paradies
- Springerle Cookies & Molds by Ann M. Del Tredici
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