Everyone who tries these cookies instantly sings my praises and begs for more. It’s an old German recipe my grandmother found years ago. She made a couple of batches but quickly decided they were too much work, and the task fell to me. When I was in high school, I would sometimes make a batch on the weekend and my boyfriend and I would devour all of them in a Buffy-induced sugar binge. My mom begs me to make them every year when I come home for Christmas, and this year I finally caved. They are time consuming, and a big pain to say the least, but totally worth it.
They have very few ingredients, so you’d think they’d be easy, right? Wrong. The hardest part about these babies is putting them together without breaking them. It has been a couple of years since I made them, and this year I finally managed to make a whole batch without losing a single one. Success!
It starts like most shortbread dough: combine sugar and fat, add flour and salt. To make sure the dough was extra firm for rolling, I then divided it into two discs, wrapped them in plastic wrap, and refrigerated them for about an hour.
Then I rolled a few at a time on a floured surface. I kept them close to 1/4 inch thick. Typically, I use a drinking glass to cut these, though you could use any round cutter you’ve got handy. I lifted each one carefully and transferred it to a parchment lined cookie sheet. If it started to break on the way to the pan, it went in the scrap pile. As I rolled the scraps, I continually added new dough to the working dough to ensure it never got too floury, as this makes the dough brittle.
I baked each pan of cookies for about 12-13 minutes at 350 degrees. Patience is key: I never took them out because I was in a hurry, or tossed in a new sheet of cookies and risked having to time both of them. One pan at a time, then go do something else and wait.
Once removed from the oven, the pan has to rest for a couple of minutes. If you try to remove the cookies while they are still too hot, they will crumble (are you seeing a pattern here?). When you’re ready to remove them from the pan, use a nice flat spatula and have your cooling racks at the ready.
After you’ve got them all rolled, baked, and set to cool, go do something else for an hour or so. Play a video game, listen to music, go grocery shopping. But don’t touch the spitzbuben!
Because when you get back, you’ve got to roll all of them in a bowl of granulated sugar. And that takes time and patience, and cold cookies that won’t crumble.
Next, you’ll need a jar of seedless raspberry jam. I was going to make my own raspberry filling this year, but opted out when I saw the poor pickings for fresh raspberries at the local grocery store. If you have the time and ambition, you could use a sauce like this one. If you’re using jam, pour it into a bowl and stir it to soften it up. In my youthful impetuosity of years past, I would use a butter knife and stab the jam right out of the jar. Trust me, this is a bad idea: the hard clump of jam causes the cookie to – you guessed it – break. Use a teaspoon or two of jam and sandwich two cookies with the flat sides together.
Then set them on a plate, tray, or cooled cookie sheet. They are best left to chill once again, so the jam sets up. When I make them in the winter, I keep them on the porch; in the summer, in the refrigerator. It’s fine to kind of stack and stagger them, so long as they stay mostly flat. When they are finally ready to eat, you can bet they’ll disappear as fast as you can say “Spitzbuben!”
Spitzbuben
Makes 40 cookies/20 sandwiches (can easily be doubled)
1 C granulated sugar + 1 C for rolling finished cookies
1 C + 3 T vegetable shortening
1 tsp vanilla
3 C flour
1/4 tsp salt
1 18 oz jar seedless raspberry jam, or homemade jam
With an electric mixer, combine shortening and sugar. Add vanilla. In a separate bowl, sift together flour and salt. Gradually add flour, mixing until a stiff dough forms. Knead to combine all the crumbly bits. Separate into two balls, flatten into discs, and wrap in plastic wrap. Chill 1 hour.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. A handful at a time, roll the dough out to 1/4 inch thick on a lightly floured surface. Use a drinking glass or other round cutter to cut cookies. Carefully lift each cookie and place on a parchment lined cookie sheet. Bake for 12 to 13 minutes, just before they start to turn golden. Combine scraps with a handful of fresh dough, and continue rolling cookies.
Allow to cool on the cookie sheet for a few minutes before transferring to a wire rack. Allow to cool another 30 minutes to 1 hour, until cold. Pour 1 C sugar into a shallow bowl. Shake each cookie around in the bowl until it is coated, and set aside.
Pour the jam into a bowl and stir until softened. Spoon 1-2 teaspoons of jam on the flat side of half the cookies, and sandwich with the other half. Place on a flat tray and chill (or set in the coolest part of your house) for at least an hour.
Serve your spitzbuben, and be prepared for undying adulation!
