My hubby knows me too well. It isn’t something sparkly, shiny, or even floral I want on a special occasion. No, not even diamonds are my hearts desire. If he wants to make me happy he knows all he has to do is pick out pretty much anything from House On The Hill. It’s a little system we have. 🙂
I love the intricate designs, and I am always amazed at what I find on their website.
The fun thing about these molds is you can use them to make lots of different things, not just the traditional springerle cookies. House on the Hill has a variety of recipes, which you can find on their recipe section here. You also get a free recipe booklet when you spend over $35 on their site (I’ve managed to get.. a couple). 🙂
If you can’t wait to try making something with springerle molds, today is your lucky day. Connie from House on the Hill sent me the “single acorn” mold to play with, and has another one for one of you! Details at the bottom of this post to enter!
This mold is perfect for fall, and I decided to make spicy gingerbread instead of springerle with it to start.
Tip: Usually you brush your mold with flour or powdered sugar, but for darker cookies like gingerbread lightly spray with non stick spray so they won’t have a floury appearance.
I also used it to make a cupcake topper using marshmallow fondant, and I got to thinking it would work well for bars of cake or dessert as well.
I used the baroque owl here, and LOVE how it looks.
To make, just roll out your marshmallow fondant (fairly thick, almost 1/2″).
Then brush your mold with powdered sugar or lightly spray with nonstick spray. Place the mold on the counter and a piece of fondant on top, then push into the mold. Use a rolling pin to roll over it if needed. Where the design is especially thick (like the acorn on the single acorn mold, or the body and head of the owl on the baroque owl) I added a piece of fondant to kind of fill in and support that deeper area.
Flip mold and fondant over and slowly separate. Cut excess off using a cutter or pinking wheel. I thought about adding some disco dust or coloring it, but I really loved the all white look on these.
I made some walnut cookies with the walnut mold my hubby bought for me last Christmas. This is so pretty paired with the acorn mold as well I thought.
Walnut Cookies
For the Cookies:
2 1/2 cups flour
1/2 tsp kosher salt
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1 tsp dried orange zest (or fresh zest of 1 orange)
3/4 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
3 oz cream cheese, at room temperature
1 cup sugar
1 egg yolk
1 tsp vanilla
For the filling:
1 1/2 cups ground walnuts
1 cup confectioners sugar
2 T butter, softened
4 oz dark chocolate, melted
2 oz heavy cream
Make cookies: Whisk together the flour, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, and zest in a small bowl and set aside. In a medium bowl, cream together the butter and cream cheese until well combined. Gradually beat in sugar. Add the egg yolk and vanilla and beat until smooth.
Add the flour mixture slowly and mix well. Wrap dough in plastic wrap and chill overnight.
Separate the dough into 4 sections and take one section out of the fridge at a time (the dough will come out of the mold easier if very cold). Brush walnut mold with confectioners sugar and press a ball of dough into mold. Scrape excess off back if needed. Use the point of a knife to help dough out of mold. Bake at 350 degrees for 10-12 minutes. Cool completely on a wire rack before filling.
Make filling: Mix all the filling ingredients together until well mixed. Place a teaspoon of filling on the back of a cookie and add another, pressing together lightly.
Recipe adapted from House on the Hill
And for a non-food project you can use an air dry clay, such as Paperclay (House on the Hill sells it here) with the mold. Stay away from Fimo, Sculpey, and such because they can take the finish off the mold.
After the clay was dry, I painted some with an antique gold paint (letting the paint be heavier in some areas, lighter in others, to highlight the details.)
I also painted some dark red, then after drying I highlighted with the antique gold paint. I glued them to loops of ribbon and they are my new favorite fall napkin rings!
Giveaway Rules: To enter, just leave a comment on this post (with your email so I can contact you if you win). One entry per person, U.S. Residents only. You can enter now until October 5th. Winner will be chosen at random and announced Monday October 7th on this post.
What would you make with this mold?
And the randomly chosen winner is…
Your 1 winners on “Using Springerle Molds (and a giveaway!)” are:
Andie M
Congrats Andie! I’ll be contacting you. 🙂
Ingredients
For the Cookies:
- 2 1/2 cups flour
- 1/2 tsp kosher salt
- 1/2 tsp cinnamon
- 1/4 tsp nutmeg
- 1 tsp dried orange zest (or fresh zest of 1 orange)
- 3/4 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
- 3 oz cream cheese, at room temperature
- 1 cup sugar
- 1 egg yolk
- 1 tsp vanilla
For the filling:
- 1 1/2 cups ground walnuts
- 1 cup confectioners sugar
- 2 T butter, softened
- 4 oz dark chocolate, melted
- 2 oz heavy cream
Instructions
Make cookies: Whisk together the flour, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, and zest in a small bowl and set aside. In a medium bowl, cream together the butter and cream cheese until well combined. Gradually beat in sugar. Add the egg yolk and vanilla and beat until smooth.
- Add the flour mixture slowly and mix well. Wrap dough in plastic wrap and chill overnight.
- Separate the dough into 4 sections and take one section out of the fridge at a time (the dough will come out of the mold easier if very cold). Brush walnut mold with confectioners sugar and press a ball of dough into mold. Scrape excess off back if needed. Use the point of a knife to help dough out of mold. Bake at 350 degrees for 10-12 minutes. Cool completely on a wire rack before filling.
Make filling: Mix all the filling ingredients together until well mixed. Place a teaspoon of filling on the back of a cookie and add another, pressing together lightly.
I would make Christmas cookies to give to my neighbors and friends if I were to win this lovely contest~ The spicy gingerbread cookies mentioned by Holly sound delicious!!!
Of course the usual recipes we all use already, but I’d also like to try pfeffernusse and see if it holds the design.
I wonder if you could mold beeswax with this mold? Has anyone tried it?
Great idea! I would contact House On The Hill, they are great at answering questions like that (to make sure it wouldn’t damage the mold)
I think It would be lovely to turn those molds out and make a fall 50th wedding anniversary cake…I just happen to have to do one next month…Please pick me!!!
Traditional springerle cookies. I love them anytime of year, not just Christmas.
I just love making traditional springerle cookies, so I would use this mold a lot for them. Also I would try some other recipes that use a nice deep design like this one. It would fit in quite nicely in my part of the woods – oak and fir trees all around.
I would most certainly would make cookies, but also would experiment with clay. As a ceramist, using this mold would add a beautiful addition to my pots and tiles. Just simply lovely!
Love the different ways in which you can use these molds. Lots of gift ideas.
I love all of your ideas! I needed some new ideas 🙂 Also do you use powdered sugar or corn starch to dust the molds before pressing the fondant in?
I would use powdered sugar. For the ones in the photo I actually used a tiny bit of nonstick spray so they would be slightly glossy though. Either way would work, but powdered sugar will give them a more matte finish.
I love working with the springerle and always open to new recipes and molds. I have a lot of them from House on the Hill and use them often. Just a small question though, after you use a mold for clay can you safely use it for food? I make these for Church and they sell very well. People really like them.
Springerle cookies are beautiful for bridal showers!
I would think so, since Paperclay is nontoxic.
These are absolutely beautiful! The cookies alone make wonderful gifts and whenever I bring a platter to a gathering, people are always amazed.
How many great ideas! Love the walnut cookies 🙂 Thank you!
I come from a German heritage and we always make springerle cookies around the holidays at my parents’ house, so I would love to have this springerle mold to start my own collection and make my own springerle cookies at my house too! 🙂
I LOVE Springerle cookie molds!! I just ordered the entire set of 12 Days of Christmas from House On The Hill and can’t wait to get the molds. Great website!
I love these molds, but I haven’t tried using them yet! My mom is from Germany and I would love to try some! We could bake together!
Oh my! I’m just starting to get into these – oh the possitbilities!
These cookies are just so beautiful…
love all the possibilities with springerle molds . . .
Holly your napkin rings turnout so nice! I love the red. I think I might just need to order myself the owl and walnut sets. Thanks for the cookie recipe, they are amazing!!
Thanks for the marshmallow fondant recipe! I am always looking for ways to use their molds in food other than springerle, and will use this recipe on cupcakes. For holidays I brush the final frosted item with a little gold luster dust to make it look festive.
The spicy gingerbread sounds fantastic. I have experimented a little with baking with molds with my mother, but would love to have one of my own to create with.
Love your blog Holly—thank you for saring your amazing talents! I would definitely make cookies, and would probably be tempted to use one as a soap mold—very pretty!
I have been using your wonderful molds for years , please work on a sugar free recipe , I have also been buying them as gifts to give away , my family made blessing cookies , so I decided to make them using your molds , the head of the table gets the cookie , breaks off a piece and says a blessing , the cookie is handed around the table to the next even the smallest child gets a piece , then the rest is handed back to the head of the table to devour the last and say the final blessing , my family’s tradition is now in many a home and lives on ,