Aunt Judith's spritz

Aunt Judith wasn't really my aunt, or Ken's, but we thought of her as our very own aunt. She was actually our friend Lynn's aunt.

Judith was a lovely Swedish lady who taught everyone she knew the meaning of ambition and kindness and grace and creativity.

She was born and grew up in New Sweden, Maine, which is in the far northern tip of this state. Her parents were descended from the original immigrants who sailed from Sweden to New Brunswick in the late 1800's, then walked across New Brunswick and into Maine. There they established a Swedish colony which still exists today.

Judith and her siblings spoke Swedish before starting school, then they learned English. Once in awhile one could detect a bit of a Swedish accent in Judith's speech even 90 years later.

In Judith's later years she moved down to this area of the state to live with Lynn and her family. That's when Ken and I got to know her well.

Judith could knit, sew, crochet, cook, and bake like no one else. Ken and I each have a pair of handknitted socks which Aunt Judith made for us one Christmas. Ken's are blue, mine are red.

Beyond Judith's loving personality, it was her Swedish cooking and baking which endeared her to so many. Each Christmas she made, among other specialties, rye bread, coffee bread, spritz, and inlagd sill.

The rye bread and cofffee bread probably need no explanation; the inlagd sill probably does. It's raw salt herring layered in a glass dish with onions, whole cloves and a vinegar/sugar sauce. Bay leaves and pepper are added for good measure, then the dish is refrigerated and dished into throughout the holiday season. Ken likes to make a batch of Judith's inlagd sill every Christmas. Believe it or not, it's delicious! (It's about time to order our 2 lbs. of salt herring from New Sweden, I just realized.)

It's Judith's spritz, however, which I enjoy making. Judith dictated the recipe to me, from memory, several years ago, and I've made a batch of them each Christmas since then.

Spritz require a cookie press. This isn't such a difficult contraption to use, really. Mine is the old style, which requires some slight muscle power to use. I noticed in a flyer yesterday, though, that there are now electric cookie presses. What'll they think of next?

You simply mix up the dough, fill the press's barrel, screw on the plunger, and make long lines of dough on the cookie sheet. Then you cut the dough into approximately 4" sections, form these into circles, and bake them.

Here's Judith's recipe for spritz:

Cream 1 lb. butter, 1 c. sugar, and 1 egg yolk. Judith was adamant that the egg's white should not be included, although some spritz recipes, I've noticed, do include it.

Cream together the butter, sugar, and egg yolk. Add 4 1/2 c. sifted flour and 2 t. almond extract.

Put dough into cookie press, form into circles on cookie sheet, and bake at 375° approximately 12 minutes. (Judith said 11 minutes, but I find my oven requires 13 minutes.) Bake until the cookies are just beginning to darken.

This recipe makes 10 dozen spritz. I made half a batch this past weekend and have them hidden away in the pantry so we'll stay out of them until Christmas.

Spritz are a delicate delight.

Aunt Judith died a few years ago, just before her 100th birthday. We miss her but remember her in so many good ways. Ken and I both realize we are fortunate to have known her.