Is one "spritz" a sprit, y'all? Not that it really matters that much, since it's practically impossible to eat just one. These traditional German Christmas cookies, properly called Spritzgebäck, are simply heavenly, if not to say a downright spiritual experience. As the folks at Wikipedia a bit primly put it: "When made correctly, the cookies are crisp, fragile, somewhat dry, and buttery." Spritzen means "to squirt," which is how these holiday treats get made: by extruding the dough through a cookie press with patterned holes or nozzles attached. Spritz are quite popular in the Netherlands too; the word cookie itself derives from koekje and the Dutch are quite justly famous for them. Another one of my favorites (and not just because it's fun to say!) is the stroopwafel, which is made to balance nicely atop your teacup, the steam arising from which softens up the syrupy center. There were 61 examples of Spritual* in OhioLINK this morning, making this one a typo of "high probability" on the Ballard list. Sweeten up your catalog by squeezing out these typos today.(Spritzgebäck, 2005, from Wikimedia Commons.)
Carol Reid
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