Are you using your grandmother's recipe, Jim?

My first guess is if she used hartshorn (baker's ammonia) and you're using baking powder, there would be a difference in the results.

Cookies with hartshorn have a reputation for "fluffiness" and tenderness compared to those with baking powder.

But you do have to live with the stink while they bake, LOL.

Carol

The secret is a recipe with lots of eggs and sugar in relation to the flour...my recipe calls for 3 eggs and 1 3/4 cup flour.
While they are sitting, they get sort of a liquid sugary skin on top and that puffs up and forms sort of a glaze while they are baking.
Did your grandmother use a springerle mold? Or did she make the dropped variety. I find that the dropped sort are more tender and "puffy" than the rolled and molded kind. But I know that the dropped sort aren't real springerle....but I seem to have an awful time with a springerle mold releasing the dough!
Linda C

I just made a batch of Springerle - last night and this morning. This was the first time I tried them. I really made sure the molds were covered with powdered sugar and had no problem with them releasing and they wound up nice and puffy with the crunchy outside and the soft spongy center. However, while they baked, they kind of puffed out of the bottom which raised up the cookies on one side. They were twice as high as they should have been. It was like the insides had to go somewhere, so they puffed and oozed out the one side of the bottom. Yes, kind of bizarre looking. LOL! Well, they didn't taste too bad even though they weren't aged yet, but I took the excess bottoms off and put them into a tight tin to age. The recipe said to roll the dough 1/2" thick, but I think the next time I'll do it 1/4" thick.

Linda, how about giving us the whole recipe. I have some beautiful molds I've collected as part of my cookie cutter collection, but since none of us are wild about eating them, lots of years I never bake any. I want to this year, and I'm getting an early start on things. I'd love to compare your entire recipe to mine.

http://www.springerlecookies.com/category/tips-and-techniques/

Hartshorn??? Whats that???
by connie on August 21, 2008
Yes, itÂs the ingredient that stumps you. Hartshorn is also known as bakerÂs ammonia and ammonium carbonate. It is an old time leavening that literally used to be made from ground deer horn. Hart is the German work for deer and that is how it is so named. It is not commonly found in everyday groceries. Years ago I would purchase hartshorn (and also anise oil) at a pharmacy; that was back when pharmacies did compounding and mixing right in their shops. Not something easily found these days. Thus, many people started substituting baking powder in their springerle. I still really like hartshorn as it produces a fluffier, lighter and softer texture in springerle. Some springerle lovers grew up with the baking powder version and actually prefer the harder cookie that is the resultÂ.and thatÂs just fine.

Think if you check out the above web address, it might be helpful.

http://www.cheftalk.com/forums/pastries-baking-general/37555-springerle-cookies.html

There is a general ratio of ingredients that was traditionally used for Springerle:

4 eggs, 500 g. of sugar, 500 g. flour, a leavening agent (formerly hartshorn salt as mentioned above, now baking powder)

Traditional flavorings of grated lemon peel and crushed anise seeds were also added.

Most recipes require that you beat the whole eggs and sugar together - some recipes for as long as 30 minutes. This is an important step you want to take your time on.

...Beat the eggs with an electric mixer on high speed for 10 minutes, until the eggs are very pale and thick. Reduce mixer speed to medium, add the sugar, 2 T. at a time, while you continue beating. After all the sugar has been added, beat on high speed for 10 minutes longer.

Dust the pastry board with powdered sugar instead of flour. The added flour adds more gluten which can cause the cookies to be tough. This hint works for any type of cookies you need to roll out. The sugar melts during baking.

Chill the dough before rolling. Work quickly, when rolling the dough out, because the dough dries rapidly. Roll out 1/4 of the dough at a time and keep the other portions well-wrapped and in the refrigerator. Roll out the dough to 1/4-inch.

Bake ONLY until they have puffed up but are not browned on top. It's easy to over-bake them. They should be white on top and pale golden on the bottom. Remove from the baking sheet to a wire rack to cool at least 1 hour.

The cookies are left in the open air for a few days, to soften, or are put into a container with a piece of bread or half an apple, and the cookies absorb a bit of moisture. German cooks will tell you that Springerle must "ripen" in their storage containers for at least three or four weeks before they are ready to eat.

Springerle are not just for munching, but are also painted and used to decorate the tree, used as Christmas cards or gift tags on gifts.

-Grainlady

I still bake with hartshorn. It is available, though it may take a bit more work to locate.

It's common in Scandinavian baking, some Greek cookies call for it and some professional chefs prefer it for light crispy crackers. Nick Malgieri recommends it in biscotti.

You can buy it online at King Arthur Flour or if you have a compounding pharmacy in your area, they can provide it. I used to buy it from Sweet Celebrations but unfortunately they just went out of business.

If you're placing an order anyway, it may be worth getting it at KAF, but Sugarcraft is much cheaper. It's under "Food Products" in their catalog.
Carol

Sweet Celebrations went out of business! I depended on them for my sugars and cookie eyes and new cutters and so much more. There was a store in Burnsville MN I always visited when at the grandkids, and I ordered on line as well. I'm devastated.

After perusing the suggestions here and doing lots of web surfing I've pretty much discarded my initial hunches. Now I think one of the keys is the leavening agent. Evidently, hartshorn was the traditional leavening agent, as Carol says.

Most people today probably use baking powder, as called for by many recipes. But there are at least two types of baking powder. I have reason to believe my grandmother used Davis double acting, which I believe has a heat activated compound as well as a water activated one. I don't think she used hartshorn, although that is possible. I need to ask my mother if she knows. My daughter has both Davis and Rumford in her kitchen and doesn't recall which one was used in previous years' springerle.

Rumford is also labeled as double acting, but is faster acting and may be exhausted during the overnight drying period called for by most springerle recipes. The purpose of drying is to retain the sharpness of the embossed designs during baking. Rumford says this about their product:

"As an all-phosphate baking powder, Rumford Baking Powder does not contain any aluminum. This property makes it somewhat faster acting than typical double-acting baking powders. Youâll still see a boost of leavening in the oven, but most of the reaction occurs in the mixing bowl. While this makes a more delicate crumb structure in the finished product, do not dawdle. Youâve got to work quickly for best results."

Well, an overnight drying period is some serious dawdling. I'm thinking that Rumford baking powder is not a good choice for springerle. I think springerle needs either hartshorn or a baking powder which includes calcium aluminium phosphate.

Of course, there are other factors such as proportion of ingredients, amount of mixing, baking time and baking temperature which must be considered too. Drying time doesn't seem to be critical. Lengthy beating of the eggs and sugar, as mentioned by Grainlady, is sometimes emphasized. I don't know the reason for that, incorporating air I guess.

My daughter's results improved when she switched to a recipe using cake flour. If I understand it correctly, that would jibe with the cautions against developing gluten. But it is unusual for a springerle recipe to call for cake flour.

In my OP, I failed to mention a feature of my grandmother's springerle because I didn't know how to describe it. In a couple of sites I found, there is a discussion of springerle having a "foot". This is an oval base on the bottom of the cookie which raises it slightly off the baking sheet. That feature is familiar to me. I don't know if that is what happened to bcskye's springerle which "kind of puffed out of the bottom". Maybe so.

That's my progress report for know. I'll let you know of any further developments. In the mean time, take a look at some of the sites featuring springerle on the internet (the one linked below has some nice photos) and tell me what your experience has been with different brands of baking powder.

Further detective work supports the theory that some kinds of baking powder are better than others for springerle.

I spoke with my mother, who doesn't like springerle and hasnever make it, and I asked if she could remember the type of baking powder her mother used. She said no and when I asked if she remembered any bad smelling baking powder or if she recalled the name hartshorn, she said no. Then, suddenly, the name Clabber Girl came to her mind.

I did more web searching and found the ingredients and specifications for Clabber Girl and Rumford.

Clabber Girl

Ingredients - corn starch, sodium bicarbonate, anhydrous sodium aluminum sulfate, monocalcium phosphate.

Gas Release - Carbon dioxide available for leavening is 14.5% of baking powder.

Leavening Action - In the presence of moisture about 66% of the carbon dioxide is released at batter temperature. The rest is released in the oven.

So, Clabber Girl releases about twice as much of it's carbon dioxide in the oven as Rumford, assuming the first release is completed prior to baking, which is what I believe happens with springerle. Baked goods which are placed in the oven immediately after mixing benefit from both gas releases. In that case, the difference in formula between different baking powders probably isn't apparent.

Clabber Girl, Rumford, Davis and a couple of other baking powder brands are made by the same company. I haven't been able to find the ingredients of Davis. Calumet, a Kraft Foods product is of the type which contains sodium aluminum sulfate, like Clabber Girl.

Jim

Jim, I think you answered the question about what happened to my springerle. It developed a "foot". I really don't mind as they taste really, really good. Yes, my will power is weak and I have done a little sampling long before I should.

bcskye, sounds like your springerle was very successful, maybe moreso than you thought. Which baking powder did you use?

It turns out that Davis contains sodium aluminum sulfate. So that might be a good choice for springerle, if my theory is correct.

Jim