The Springerle Rolling Pin

I think I've wanted to bake springerle cookies (pronounced shpring-early) all my life. One impediment was that I didn't know what they were for the longest time. The journey began with a wooden rolling pin that my mom used for shortbread; she would press it into the dough and produce squares with rabbits, flowers, fish and birds printed into them. I absolutely loved the idea, but I was a little sad that the rising of the dough in the oven caused the images to fade out a lot.

The next part of the story was the first time I saw a picture of springerle in a Christmas cookie recipe book. I was transfixed; I read the recipe over and over, but I didn't know where to get the molds that make these beautiful ornate threee-dimensional German cookies. I asked at numerous cooking stores all over the eastern seaboard. No one had them. I bought some ceramic cookie stamps, but they're very tricky to use and I didn't even test them on a true springerle recipe.

Enter Martha Stewart. I spotted a lovely springerle cookie on the cover of one of her magazines and bought the issue imagining that it would tell me everything I needed to know on the subject. Bad Martha! Not for the first time, I was misled by one of her luscious cover photos. There wasn't really very much about springerle in the issue, but it did clue me in to a business called House on the Hill, which carries springerle supplies. I ordered a catalogue. When it finally arrived, I was a bit horrified to discover that a single mold can cost as much as $60. But there are molds that stamp several patterns at the same time. Some of them are shaped like rolling pins...

Suddenly, the other shoe dropped. My mother's rolling pin wasn't for shortbread! It was for springerle! I called her up right away and asked her to dig it out. For a brief unhappy moment she thought it might have been left behind when she moved out of the family home in Montreal. But no, it was still in her possession, and I yoinked it out of her hands a few days later.

I had fun cleaning it very carefully, but it took me a long time to get a chance to try to make the cookies. Not until today, actually. The dough is made by beating eggs with powdered sugar for a long time, and then adding flour. Hartshorn or baking powder makes it rise, and it's traditionally flavoured with anise extract, but I substituted almond extract as I couldn't find anise in the neighbourhood.

It's an odd dough, and the rolling takes some muscle. It also sticks a lot, so you have to keep dusting everything with flour while working. The idea is that you let the cookies dry on top overnight so the pattern doesn't distort in the baking; that's where I am now. Although I followed the instructions, I feel that I will roll the dough thicker next time. However, I'll wait to see what happens in the oven tomorrow before I modify the plan.

For the moment I have three cookie sheets covered with springerle, and I feel like I've satisfied some atavistic need. Baking them will just be the icing on the... cookie.