Spritzgebäck, also called a spritz cookie in the United States, is a type biscuit or cookie of German and Alsatian-Mosellan origin made of a rich shortcrust pastry. When made correctly, the cookies are crisp, fragile, somewhat dry, and buttery. The German root verb spritzen is cognate with the English to spurt. As the name implies, these cookies are made by squeezing, or "spritzing", the dough through a cookie press fitted with patterned holes (or extruded through a cake decorator or pastry bag to which a variety of nozzles may be fitted).