Traditional Italian Anise Cookies Food

ANISE COOKIES

Steps:

• Melt butter and shortening together. Add the sugar; mix well. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Mix in the anise extract. Sift or whisk together flour, baking powder and salt. Add to creamed mixture gradually. If the dough is too sticky to roll in the palm of your hand, add flour until firmer, but it should be very soft. Roll dough in small balls (these tend to really puff up with all the baking powder in them!) and place on ungreased cookie sheets. Bake @ 375 degrees for 8-10 minutes (the bottom should be lightly browned but the tops should remain light). Remove cookies to wire rack and cool completely before glazing.
• Next time I will be more careful with the flour, I think I added a bit too much. The tops of my cookies cracked. I also used my cookie scoop and filled it half way, which seemed to work pretty well.
• Mix milk GRADUALLY into confectioners' sugar to make a thick glaze... make sure to keep it on the thick side. Dip top of each cookie into glaze. Sprinkle with colored jimmies or nonpareils while glaze is still wet. I usually dip 10-12 cookies, return them to the wire rack (with wax paper under the racks to aid in clean up!) and then sprinkle those cookies before starting to dip more.
• I dipped and sprinkled 5 at a time, that seemed to be the magic number before the glaze would start to harden.

ITALIAN ANISE COOKIES

Steps:

• Beat eggs together in a large bowl. Gradually stir white sugar into beaten eggs until smooth. Slowly pour vegetable oil and anise oil into sugar mixture until incorporated. Mix flour and baking powder together in a separate bowl; slowly add to sugar mixture, stirring with a wooden spoon until dough is dry.
• Refrigerate dough, 30 minutes to overnight.
• Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Lightly grease a baking sheet.
• Roll dough into walnut-size balls and arrange on the prepared baking sheet.
• Bake in the preheated oven until cookies are crisp around the edges, 12 to 15 minutes. Cool cookies on baking sheet for 5 minutes before transferring to a wire rack.
• Mix confectioners' sugar and milk together in a bowl until desired consistency is reached. Dip a fork into the icing and drizzle over cookies. Allow icing to harden.

ITALIAN ANISETTE COOKIES

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C).
• In large bowl, mix flour, baking powder and white sugar. Make a well in the center and add oil, milk, 1 tablespoon anise extract, and eggs. Mix together until dough is sticky.
• Oil fingers and pinch off dough in 1 inch pieces. Roll into a ball and place on a lightly greased cookie sheet, 1 inch apart, flatten top slightly. Bake for 8 minutes. Dip cookies in Icing while warm.
• To Make Icing: Blend in 1 teaspoon anise extract and enough hot water to 1 cup confectioner's sugar to form a smooth icing.

ITALIAN GRANDMOTHER ANISE COOKIES

Steps:

• Combine the flour, sugar and heaping tablespoon of baking powder.
• In another bowl whisk together the eggs, vegetable oil and anise extract.
• Combine wet and dry ingredients. Dough will be sticky, add up to an extra 1/4 cup of flour if needed.
• Shape cookies as desired (lightly oiled hands will help). One way to do it: roll about 2 tablespoons of dough between hands until you have a rope, fold rope in half and twist. You can also just make little dough patties.
• Place on ungreased cookie sheets. Bake at 350 degrees for 10 minutes (this is good for dark nonstick sheets, you might need to bake a little longer if using airbake sheets).
• Remove from cookie sheets and let cool completely.
• To make icing, melt butter then add milk. Gradually mix in powdered sugar. Add more sugar or milk until at desired spreading consistency.
• Frost cookies. Icing will harden quickly so add non-pareils or other sprinkles immediately after frosting each cookie.

ITALIAN ANISE COOKIES WITH ICING AND SPRINKLES

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line cookie sheets with parchment paper.
• For cookies, cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy, about 5 minutes. Add eggs, one at a time, mixing after each addition. Add anise extract.
• Blend flour and baking powder. Start by adding about 1/3 of these dry ingredients to the butter/sugar in your mixer, then add 1 T. milk. Add another third of the flour and another 1 T. milk. Finally, mix in enough of the remaining flour until your dough is like a brownie batter (it should be softer than a drop cookie dough).
• Use a 1 T. cookie scooper to make simple round drop cookies - use wet fingers to pat any rough edges OR for an Easter-Egg look, roll 1 T. dough into an elongated ball.
• Bake cookies 10-12 minutes (they won't be brown but the insides will be soft and cake-like).
• For icing: mix sugar, milk and extract to make a sugar glaze. HINT: When I make the icing, I make it thick but then I microwave it for 10 seconds so it is thin enough for dipping. Also, I like to divide the mixture in thirds, and then add ONE DROP of food coloring to each batch (pink, green, yellow).
• Hold cookie in your hand and turn upside down so you can dip the top half in the glaze; turn over and immediately top with sprinkles so they will stick.
• Allow icing to harden overnight; then store in air-tight containers or freeze.