If you like the flavour of anise (rhymes with amiss), these old-fashioned Italian biscotti will surely delight you. They are popular at Easter, Christmas, traditional Italian weddings or anytime.
Biscotti means “twice cooked” and so these anise cookies are. The double baking gives them a characteristic dryness, which is excellent for flavour and dunking too. They keep well baked this way, in case you should want to send some to a loved one far away.
Many people today take shortcuts to the original recipe by using anise extract instead of seeds and using the quick drop method instead of the log method. But this old recipe is a little different and I think makes a tremendous cookie, See if you agree.
Recipe from “The Italian Cooking
Class Cookbook, Beekman House, NY 1982
Anise Cookies Makes approximately 4 dozen cookies
Ingredients:
¾ cup (4 ounces/115g) whole blanched
almonds
2 ¼ cups (560ml) all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
¾ teaspoon salt
¾ cup (180ml) sugar
½ cup (125ml) unsalted butter, at room
temperature
3 large eggs, at room temperature
2 tablespoons (30ml) brandy
2 teaspoons grated lemon peel
1 tablespoon whole anise seeds
Method:
Heat oven to 375F (189C)
Put the almonds in baking pan
Bake about 7 minutes or until light
brown
Remove to a plate and let cool
Chop the cooled almonds coarsely
Combine flour, baking powder and salt
in a small bowl
In medium mixing bowl, beat sugar and
butter until fluffy
Add the eggs, one at a time, beating
well after each addition
Scrape sides of bowl and stir in brandy
and lemon peel
Add the flour blend and stir until
smooth
Now stir in the almonds and anise seeds
Put the dough in the ice-box and
refrigerate, covered, for 1 hour, to get firm
Heat oven again to 375F/190C
Grease 1 large baking sheet
Divide the dough in half
Spoon half the dough in a row, lengthwise, on one side of the sheet
Spread top and sides even with a
spatula (or back of a spoon)
Spread to form a 12x2 inch (30x5cm)
log, dough will be fairly soft
Pat the surface smooth using lightly
floured fingertips
Repeat this procedure with remaining half of dough to form second log
Bake 20-25 minutes or until the logs are a light golden brown
Leave the oven on but remove the baking
sheet to a wire rack to let cool
Lower the oven heat to 350F/180C
When logs are completely cooled off,
cut diagonally with a serrated knife
Cut into ½ inch (1.5cm) thick diagonal
slices
Place the slices flat in a single layer on 2 ungreased baking sheets
Bake 8 minutes then turn over and
re-bake 10 minutes longer
Remove cookies to wire rack and cool
completely
When cooled, put in tightly covered
container, where they will keep for several weeks if they don't get
eaten up first.
If you or your children have never had
anise cookies, I hope you will bake these soon. This old-fashioned
style of baking has a long history behind it. For instance, sailors
used to bring hardtack biscuits with them on voyages because
they kept well. Anise cookies just plain taste good.
