modeling | Fancy Flours: Where Bakers Bloom

Guest Post by Fancy Flours Employee Lindsey K.

Welcome back to the third installment of our Springerle Series! This post will cover three mediums that you can use to top cookies in beautiful molded designs – modeling chocolate, fondant and marzipan. This is a super quick and easy way to take your cookies to the next level for wedding favors, birthdays, holiday gifts or just a sweet treat for a special someone.

If you missed our previous posts on how to craft with Springerle molds, see them here: Casting and Papercasting. As a quick review, Springerle cookies have been used to depict everything from biblical images to daily life since the 16th century. While the molds were originally used to make dense, cake-like cookies (see our recipe here!), they have advanced to be useful in crafting as well.

Our molds are made by House on the Hill of an heirloom quality wood and composite mix. Most of their images are casts of vintage molds and others are of their own design.

Before making our toppers for this tutorial, we pre-made cookies using our Gingerbread recipe. This recipe is fabulous for not only its taste, but for holding its shape. You could also use our No-Fail Sugar Cookie Recipe. We took note of the sizes of our molds and used cutters to make cookies just slightly larger.

We also pre-made our modeling chocolate, which is a surprisingly simple recipe from House on the Hill. You can also buy chocolate-flavored, white or colored fondant at most craft and baking stores. Or if you prefer to make your own, here’s a recipe from Allrecipes! And for you sweet almond lovers, you can simply use Marzipan from your grocery store.

I will show images using both the modeling chocolate (in brown) and fondant (in white). If you choose to use marzipan, you will follow the fondant instructions.

Ingredients/ Utensils

Modeling chocolate, fondant or marzipan
Cocoa powder (if using modeling chocolate)
Powdered sugar (if using fondant or marzipan)
Corn Syrup
Springerle mold
Cookies cut and baked in the shape of your mold
2 Pastry brushes
Spatula
Small dish (for cocoa powder or powdered sugar)
Cooling rack (if using modeling chocolate)
Pastry prep mat (optional)
Luster or disco dust (optional)
Small food-safe paint brush (optional)

Directions

1. Workspace prep: On a flat surface, lay down your Pastry Prep Mat or wax paper to protect your surface and keep your area clean. Fill a small dish with your dusting powder (either cocoa or powdered sugar) and set near your pastry mat with a clean, dry pastry brush. Set your modeling chocolate, fondant or marzipan in a bowl near your space for easy access. Set out your cooling racks if using modeling chocolate.

2. Dip your pastry brush in cocoa (for chocolate) or powdered sugar (for fondant or marzipan) and dust your Springerle mold so it has an thick, even coating throughout the design. The pastry brush is great for this as it won’t clog up the deeper areas.

3. Lay your dusted mold face up on your pastry mat. Pull a ball of your topper medium from the bowl. It will need to be enough to fill the mold and a little extra to go over the edges.

Fancy tip: Your modeling chocolate should be the consistency of Play-Doh or perhaps even a touch harder. If it seems too soft or is sticking in your mold, flatten the ball into a pancake and refrigerate for 5-10 minutes.

4. Using your hands, press your medium into the mold. Be sure to push firmly to fill the deeper parts of the design.

5. When you feel the mold is adequately filled, flatten the back of your medium with a spatula. Press the topping to be quite thin unless you love a lot of chocolate or fondant on your cookies. 🙂

Fancy tip: If your spatula is sticking to your chocolate or fondant, dust with cocoa or powdered sugar, respectively.

6. Turn your Springerle mold upside down with your medium still in it. Use gravity (and some light taps on the table) to release it. Release time may be longer for deeper molds.

7. Trim any extra with a knife or spatula and return to your bowl for re-use. You could also use a cookie cutter sized to your mold (we have many available here).

8. For modeling chocolate only: Set your finished topper on a cooling rack to dry until firm (approximately 2 hours). You can make these ahead of time and keep in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 1 month.

9. Repeat steps 2-8 for as many toppers as you need. Be sure to dust the mold before every press for all options.

10. To adhere the toppers to your cookies, brush a thin layer of corn syrup on the back of your topper and set on your cookie. Let dry for at least 10 minutes.

11. For a fancy touch, “paint” your topper with luster dust. You will not need to mix the luster dust with anything for this project. It should stick directly onto your medium. We used Super Green and Old Gold. See all our Luster and Disco Dust colors here!

Display in a cute container for decoration or wrap in a simple polypropylene bag with a ribbon to hand out to friends and family. To create the snow effect on our Pinewood Cabin cookie, I dusted it with powdered sugar instead of the cocoa.

Molds shown in this tutorial are Tree on Table, Monogram F, Pinewood Cabin and Snowman.

We would love to see your projects. What did you make your toppers for? Show us in the comments or send an email to info@fancyflours.com!

Guest Post By Fancy Flours Employee Lindsey K.

Welcome to our first post in a series detailing all the wonderful things you can do with a Springerle mold! We’ll be jumping a little ahead in time by making Christmas ornaments, but you can use any design to decorate gifts or simply your home year round.

But what the heck is a Springerle mold? We’ll start with a brief history.

The most common form of pronunciation is spring-er-lee, however, the traditional form is shpring-er-luh. The molds were originally carved out of clay beginning as early as the 14th century in Germany, Bavaria, Switzerland and the Alsace area of France. Their biblical pictures were transferred to cookies and breads to educate those who couldn’t read or write. The molds soon changed to wood and metal mediums and the pictures came to represent everyday life – weddings, animals, holidays, etc. While generally used to mold dense, cake-like cookies, the molds have a number of uses in the crafting world.

We use molds from the wonderful crafters at House on the Hill. They’re made of a sturdy wood/resin composite and are casts of actual vintage designs. Check here for our full stock.

And now to the fun stuff! We’ll be casting our ornaments in Paperclay and Delight. Why these mediums instead of regular clay? They’re non-toxic! So you can feel safe using your mold for baking as well as crafting. This could even be a family project!

Materials:

Paperclay or Delight (Paperclay is clay-like and ivory while Delight is a foam-like texture and pure white)
A Springerle Mold (we have tons from House on the Hill!)
Flat Workspace
Rolling Pin
Small Dish (a ramekin works great) to hold your cornstarch
Cornstarch
Pastry Brush
Lollipop Stick or Straw
Small Spatula
Cooling Rack
Ribbon
Silicone Pastry Mat (optional)
Acrylic Paint (optional)
Dough Scraper (optional for easy cutting, transferring casts and cleaning your workspace)

Instructions:

1. Knead your molding medium into a solid mass (we used Paperclay for this tutorial). Make sure there are no layers or your cast won’t come out cleanly. It helps to roll the dough rather than fold it. If your Paperclay seems dry, you can add a Tablespoon or less of water until it reaches the consistency you desire.

Tip: If you want your dough all one color, knead in a couple drops of acrylic paint to your desired shade.

2. Dust your work surface and rolling pin with cornstarch. We laid down our Tovolo Pastry Prep Mat before dusting. This makes for easier cleanup and your molding medium won’t stick to the table. Roll out the Paperclay as you would cookie dough.

Tip: Consider the depth of your design. Don’t roll your Paperclay thinner than the deepest part or you will lose the top details!

3. Use a pastry brush (or large new paint brush) to dust cornstarch into the mold. In a pinch, you can drop the cornstarch into the mold with your fingers alone, but the brush makes for even dusting and keeps your hands clean. Be sure to dust the mold with cornstarch before every pressing!

Featured mold is Sleigh with Covered Bridge.

4. Lay the mold onto the Paperclay and use even pressure to push all sides and the center into it. Again, consider your mold’s depth and press accordingly. This can take some practice, but if you don’t like the imprint simply ball the dough and begin again. It helps to press at table height rather than counter height.

Tip: Only want a piece of the design? Lay your mold face up and press the dough into the part that you wish to use. You can cut any excess with an exacto knife, spatula or dough cutter.

5. Lift the mold and cut out your design. If you have a cookie cutter to match your design, great! Otherwise an exacto knife, spatula or dough scraper will work just fine.

Tip: Only do one press at a time. If you do more than one, your dough will squish together and warp your design.

6. Press your lollipop stick or straw where you would like to tie the ribbon. Coffee stirrers create nice small, neat holes and can be found at office supply stores. You can cut away excess Paperclay before or after this step.