Recipe Monday - Anisette Cookies

The holiday season means all my grandmother's recipes get a workout. Here is the recipe for the Italian Christmas Anisette Cookies. Traditionally they're made in white S shapes. When I was a girl, my mother used to make a huge batch of them, and she split the dough into three sections. She used food coloring to dye one section red, one green. The other section stayed white. Then we would make Christmas shapes out of the dough, like wreaths (intertwined green and white circles) and candy canes (intertwined red and white in a cane shape). We were creative!

This year, it was enough just to make the cookies. No food coloring for me!

Anisette cookies 

(I cut this recipe in half, and the half recipe made three dozen large cookies.)

Combine and beat together:

2 sticks margarine

2.25 cups sugar

5 large eggs

3 teaspoons anise (use the flavoring not the liquor (the liquor is not nearly strong enough flavoring)

 

Combine the dry ingredients:

6.5-7 cups of flour (may want to go light and add the rest later to use when rolling)

2 tablespoons baking powder 

 

Gradually add the dry ingredients to the wet, folding it in until the dough forms nearly solid.

Chill for at least an hour.

 

Roll and shape into s form

 

Cook for 10 min at 325*

 

 

 

(These cookies will be white. Half of my batch is that light, crusty brown color because my husband prefers crunchier cookies, so I cooked those at 375)