Our test cook used cookie cutters that once belonged to her grandmother, concentrating this year on stars, bells, Christmas trees, and horses. This display also includes a cookie that turned out looking more like a unicorn than a horse, and a ‘partridge’ fashioned from leftover scraps.
Mary Therese Biebel | Times Leader
… if you like anise, that is
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“Mmm, perfect,” Joe Soprano said as he sampled an anise cookie.
“Just like Grandma used to make.”
Hearing that, I felt absurdly happy. Our executive editor is a notoriously picky eater, so I always feel a flush of triumph when he agrees to taste something I made in the Times Leader Test Kitchen. Most years, it’s only my annual batch of anise cookies.
This year, as he munched on a cookie shaped like an evergreen tree he reminised about helping his grandmother make Christmas cut-out cookies when he was a kid.
“You had to be extra good to get to use her really old cookie cutters,” he said, describing one that looked like “a preacher man” with arms outstretched, which resulted in cookies likely to break. “We only made a few of those.”
I’ve had some cookies break, too, this year, before I even got them to the newsroom. I’ve also had an incident or two where the raw dough didn’t separate cleanly from the cookie cutter (dipping the cookie cutter in flour is supposed to prevent that) and ended up with something other than its intended shape.
Look closely at the array of cookies in the photo that accompanies this story, for example, and alongside the horses you’ll find a creature that looks more like a unicorn with hay hanging out of its mouth. There’s also a “partridge” in the mix, one I shaped by hand from leftover scraps of dough.
So, how did the rest of my taste testers like the cookies?
“This is the taste of Christmas,” news editor Roger DuPuis said. “The anise isn’t overpowering but it’s strong enough for those of us who enjoy it.”
“I like them and I’ll take two,” sportswriter John Erzar said before he even tried one.
“It reminds me of Christmas time and having treats,” reporter Kevin Carroll said. “It’s very tasty.”
”Very tasty?” my husband and fellow test cook Mark teased Kevin. “I only got a “tasty” when I brought in molasses cookies.”
“I’d give these the edge,” Kevin said, indicating the anise cookies, before diplomatically saying we test cooks had brought in “two good cookies” this week.
Several other newsroom staffers don’t like anise at all, so they declined the cookies.
“I wish I liked it,” reporter Jen Learn-Andes said. “It tastes like licorice, doesn’t it?”
Yes, it does. And it can be an aquired taste.
Well, gentle readers, if you need a recipe for cut-out cookies and you don’t like the flavor of anise, you’re welcome to use this old family recipe anyway. Just skip the anise oil.
Anise Cut-Out Cookies
1 cup butter
2 cups sugar
4 eggs
8 ounces sour cream
up to 5 cups of flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 teaspoon anise oil
Cream together butter, and sugar. Mix in lightly beaten eggs, sour cream, and all the other ingredients, including about 3 cups of flour, to start. Gradually add more flour, up to 2 additional cups, until dough is no longer sticky. The less flour you use, the flakier the cookies will be, and the more flour you use, the less sticky the dough will be.
Refrigerate the dough overnight for ease of handling.
When it’s time to roll out the dough, use a floured pastry cloth and floured rolling pin to roll the dough to 1/8-inch thickness. Cut out shapes with cookie cutters that have been dipped in flour. Bake at 350 degrees F for 10 to 15 minutes on greased cookie sheets.