Friday, November 02, 2007

Cookie Recipe #2

November Cookie month continues. This one was from an anonymous recipe sender.
This isn't my recipe, but it is a great cookie -- difficult, but good!

Springerle Recipe from D.D. Dillon Carvings

4 large eggs
4 cups powdered sugar
4 cups cake flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon anise extract or 4 tablespoons anise seed

Beat eggs till light, gradually add sugar and continue beating at a high speed until batter is thick and lemon colored. Add anise. Sift flour and baking powder and blend with egg mixture at a low speed. Cover bowl with wax paper or foil and let it stand 15 min. so dough is easier to work with. Divide into 3rds. On lightly floured surface, roll dough to 8" square, 1/4" thick. Let rest 1 minute. Flour mold and press design, cut around design and place cookie on greased cookie sheet. Cover with a towel all night (or make sure that cookies sit at least 12 hours before baking.) Brush off excess flour from the cookies. Bake 12 minutes at 325 degrees. Cookies will brown on bottom, but not on top as they bake. Cookies will rise, but not spread during baking. Store cookies in a tight container - place a cut apple in the jar if cookies become too hard. Lemon or almond flavoring could be substituted for anise. After cookies have cooled, the design can be painted with food coloring and a fine brush. By punching a hole at the top of each cookie before they are baked, one can insert colorful ribbon and hang them on the Christmas tree.

Some notes:
Only mix 1 batch at a time. Use a heavy-duty stand mixer (Portable mixer can be used but it is difficult as the dough is very stiff - I have also mixed them by hand, a lot of arm strength is needed). Parchment paper does not work well. I use Soft-as-Silk cake flour. I use anise extract rather than seeds, but I have sprinkled seeds on the cookie sheets. (I like strong anise flavor, so I double the anise extract.) The only fat in the recipe is in the eggs - for a low-fat version, use 2 eggs and 2/3 cup egg beaters - add additional flour as needed to make the dough a workable consistency. Although the recipe says wait 12 hours, you can mix them up in the early morning and bake them in the evening (wait at least 8 hours).

The top of the cookie dries and the bottom stays moist. When they bake, the bottom of the cookie rises and causes the cookies to "spring".


A toughie for y'all to try. Remember you can still send us your favorite cookie recipe. We're shooting for a cookie recipe a day all this month.

Tamara

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