I always thought it was funny which German words made it into the English vocabulary. It seems that German has some good expressions when it comes to war or philosophy. Says a lot about us, doesn’t it? But we also gave you streusel topping, springform pan, strudel, and spritz cookies.

In German these cookies are called Spritzgebäck, the verb spritzen means “to squirt” and the noun Gebäck means “baked good”. If you don’t have a cookie press, a more appropriate name for these would probably be arm muscle cookies. It’s quite a bit of work to press the batter out of a piping bag. Yes, you can add this activity to your list of exercises.

I added some cinnamon to the batter and some Lebkuchen spice mix to the chocolate coating. These cookies develop their full flavour after a day. To highlight the cocoa flavour, I added a couple of tablespoons rum to the batter. In this case, the alcohol is also very important for the texture of these cookies. If you want to substitute aditional non-dairy milk for the rum, I would recommend to use less than three tablespoons. Otherwise your cookies will come out flat and cakey.

Double Chocolate Spritz Cookies

Ingredients for the cookies:
150 g margarine, softened (1/2 cup plus 3 tablespoons)
125 g sugar (1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons)
90 g all-purpose flour (3/4 cup)
90 g whole wheat flour (3/4 cup)
60 g cornstarch (1/2 cup)
1/8 teaspoon baking powder
2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon salt
3 tablespoons rum
60 ml soy milk (1/4 cup)

ingredients for the chocolate coating:
100g dark chocolate (3.5 oz)
1 teaspoon coconut oil
1/4 teaspoon Lebkuchen spice mix or cinnamon

Preheat the oven to 180°C (350°F). Line 3 baking sheets with parchment paper and set aside.

In a large bowl, use a hand-held mixer to cream together margarine and sugar until light and fluffy. Add flour, cornstarch, baking powder, and cocoa powder and beat until the mixture is crumbly. The dough won’t come together at this point. Fold in cinnamon and salt. Add rum and soymilk and beat again, until a stiff batter forms.

Use a cookie press or a good quality (cloth not plastic) piping bag fitted with a large pastry tip to pipe the cookies onto the baking sheet. Don’t overfill the piping bag. I added 1/3 of the batter.

Bake for 6-7 minutes. Let cool completely before coating with chocolate.

For the coating, melt chocolate and coconut oil in a water bath. Stir in Lebkuchen spice mix or cinnamon. Dip the cookies into the chocolate and let set on a sheet of parchment paper until completey dry.