Springerle Cookie Mold

Wooden Springerle cookie mold depicting a German Sturmabteilung (SA) solider. The armband the soldier wears appears to have a swastika. Springerle cookies are traditional Christmas cookies in Bavaria and Austria for centuries. Springerle are white, anise-flavored cookies, made from a simple egg-flour-sugar dough. Usually rectangular or circular in shape, they have a picture or design stamped on the top. The images are imprinted with specially carved rolling pins or flat molds (Springerle presses, or boards). After the cookies are baked, the designs are sometimes enhanced with edible food colors--or with tempera or acrylic paints, if the cookies are to be used as decorations. Hartshorn is the traditional leavening (it is an ammonia compound). The word springerle, comes from the old German dialect meaning "little knight." Springerle cookies were made for hundreds of years and some of the earliest molds found in Switzerland date back as far as the 14th century. The molds used to make springerle were usually carved from wood or made of clay or metal. Biblical scenes were some of the earliest images portrayed in springerle and were used to educate those who couldn't read or write.