Confiserie Sprüngli · Since 1957
Luxemburgerli
Sprüngli’s Luxemburgerli are tiny, feather-light macarons with a soft cream filling, made fresh daily since 1957 in flavours from vanilla to champagne, and sold in a box that Zurich carries like a passport.
Taste profile
Pair it with
A Sprüngli coffee, or a glass of champagne with the champagne ones.
A young confectioner from Luxembourg brought the recipe to Sprüngli in 1957, and the house named the little cakes after him. They are smaller and lighter than a Paris macaron, with an airier shell and a buttercream or ganache filling that stays soft, and they keep only three days, which is why Sprüngli sells them in a cooled box with a date. Vanilla, chocolate, raspberry, champagne, stracciatella, hazelnut and the seasonal flavours are the constants.
The Paradeplatz shop sells thousands a day; a small box of twelve is the Zurich gift, and the confiserie café upstairs is where the city eats them with a coffee.
The home version · serves 6
Ingredients
- 100 g ground almonds
- 160 g icing sugar
- 3 egg whites
- 40 g sugar
- Food colour
- For the filling: 150 g butter, soft, 80 g icing sugar, 1 tsp vanilla or 50 g fruit purée
Method
- Sift almonds and icing sugar; whisk the whites with the sugar to firm peaks and fold the dry mix in until the batter flows like lava.
- Colour lightly and pipe very small discs, 2.5 cm, on baking paper; rest 30 minutes until a skin forms.
- Bake at 140 °C for 12 minutes; the shells should stay soft inside. Cool.
- Beat butter with icing sugar and vanilla or fruit purée for a light cream.
- Pipe a generous dot of cream, close with a second shell, rest overnight in the fridge.
