The other day, I checked my server logs for this site for the first time in a while, and was suprised to note that not only was “springerle recipe” the number one thing people searched for to find this site, but the words “springerle cookie recipe” in some order appeared not once but five times in the search results. Apparently the Internet wants to know how to make springerle. And since I am nothing if not helpful, I went to the expert: My mom. And she gave me a recipe from another expert: her mom.

Grandma Lohrmann’s Springerle Cookies

4 cups flour
4 eggs
2 cups granulated sugar
“butter the size of a walnut”
3 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon anise extract
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
dash of salt
crushed anise seed

Beat the eggs about five minutes. Add sugar and butter together and then add the well beaten eggs. Sift together the dry ingredients, and add to the former. Mix all together until very stiff, let sit out about 3 hours on crushed anise seed on a greased cookie sheet.

Roll the dough out, or press it with springerle molds (be sure to find some with little pictures of important events in the life of Martin Luther for that good German Lutheran feel). Let them sit out uncovered overnight to dry out.

Then bake at about 325 degrees for 10 to 12 minutes.

Optionally, you can make the chocolate version: mix about 1/2 the dough with 4 teas. cocoa powder (or a square of chocolate) and a tablespoon of butter after it has sat out for the first time.

Enjoy!