Recipes

Anise-Seed Cookies (Bizcochitos)

  • Serves

    makes 2 Dozen

SAVEUR

These cookies are delicate and crumbly with a light dusting of spicy, sweet cinnamon sugar. It's worth seeking out fresh lard, often carried by butcher shops; it's more flavorful than the supermarket variety.

Ingredients

  • 3 cups flour
  • 1 12 tsp. baking powder
  • 12 tsp. salt
  • 34 cup sugar
  • 1 tsp. cinnamon
  • 1 cup lard
  • 1 14 tsp. anise seeds
  • 1 egg

Instructions

Step 1

Preheat oven to 400°. Sift together flour, baking powder, and salt into a medium bowl and set aside. Combine ¼ cup of the sugar with cinnamon in a small bowl and set aside.

Step 2

Put lard and the remaining ½ cup of sugar into the bowl of a standing mixer fitted with a paddle and beat on medium speed until fluffy, about 1 minute. Add anise seeds and egg and beat, stopping mixer once or twice to scrape down sides of bowl with a rubber spatula, until well mixed, about 1 minute. Reduce speed to low, then gradually add flour mixture, scraping sides of bowl as needed, and beat until dough begins to gather into a ball and comes cleanly away from sides of bowl, about 2 minutes. Transfer dough to a lightly floured surface and divide in half, then shape each half into a smooth ball. Cover with a clean dish towel and set aside to let rest for 15–20 minutes.

Step 3

Roll out half of the dough on a lightly floured surface to a thickness of about ⅛". Cut into desired shapes with a cookie cutter and arrange 1" apart on ungreased cookie sheets. Bake until golden, about 10 minutes.

Step 4

Transfer cookies to a wire rack and sprinkle with reserved cinnamon–sugar mixture while still warm. Repeat process with remaining half of dough.