Eleanora Römer Scheihing's Springerle VI

History

My maternal Grandmother and Grandfather Scheihing and their children spent hours every Christmas making Springerles in Oklahoma when it was a Territory and later a State. The recipe came from Christiana Dorothea Munk Scheihing, my great-grandmother who brought it from Untertürkheim, Württemberg when she and her husband, Johann Gottlieb Scheihing, emigrated to the USA in 1869.

Making Springerles was a family undertaking, with the children, including my Mother, taking turns beating the eggs and powdered sugar by hand. Grandpa, Karl Wilhelm Scheihing (called "Charley") rolled the dough and pressed the designs, then cut the cookies. The children placed the cookies on anise seed sprinkled on baking pans to dry. Eleanora baked them the next morning.

The Springerle mold used was one brought to the USA Charley's parents.

When I was a boy my Mother, Clara Scheihng Benson, baked Springerles every Christmas, my Father, older Brother and I taking turns beating the dough my hand.

I bake Springerles every Christmas and use Great-grandpa Scheihing's Springerle mold, as well as others I acquired while living in Tübingen during graduate study.