Nonni's Anise Flavored Christmas Cookies

Every Christmas for 30+ years I was the benefactor of my mother in-law's generosity.  Shes's a great cook. Her Italian recipes are so delicious you can't begin to improve on them.  One of those recipes is some sort of 'Biscotti' cookie. The first time I tasted I had to ask 'what's that flavor?" I had tasted it before, but never in this combination. It was something called Anise.

It Tasted Like Licorice, Which I Hate

But for some reason, this was different. I liked it. It wasn't as overpowering as licorice. It was smooth and a bit refreshing. Research showed that it had medicinal value. It was also used as a fragrance. So every year I sat back, ate as many as I could, and was thankful for them.

But Then My Wife Had This Great Idea

Why not bake them for Nonni this year. Why not do this in reverse. Bake the cookies and sent them to her! She claimed it was brilliant and proclaimed that I would be the baker.  But, I really wasn't keen on trying this recipe. I knew that the outcome was going to be compared to my wife's mothers cookies.  My kids love them. My dad loved them. Heck, everybody that has ever had them loved them. This wasn't going to be easy.  And boy was I right. 

How Many Armies We Feedin' Here Hon?

The recipe was huge! When you look at the ingredients, it doesn't look like that much. But when you sit down and start making them, that's a horse of a different color.  So you're going to have to prepare yourself.  There's two ways to do that. You can either cut the recipe in half, or you can get more baking pans than you probably currently own. I have four of them, and they were all full. This is a lot of cookies.  But it's well worth the effort.  So try this recipe on and tell me what you think... 

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Ingredients:

• 6 Cups Flour
• 6 Eggs
• 1 1/4 Cup Melted Butter
• 2 Table spoons of banking powder
• 1 Tablespoon of Anise
• 2 1/2 Cups Sugar

Directions:

• Beat the eggs until light (about 3 minutes)
• Add the sugar to the eggs and beat for another 2 minutes
• Add the melted butter (when it's cooled a little)
• Add the flour mixture and mix well.
• Sit this in the refrigerator for about an hour. This will make it easier to form it into balls.
• PreHeat Oven to 350 °
• Form little balls, about the size of a small walnut. 
• Place on ungreased pan about an inch apart
• Bake at 350 ° for about 10 minutes, or until the bottoms are very light brown
• Remove from oven AND pan, as soon as cool enough. The cookies will continue to cook if you leave them on the pan. 

Frosting

• Melt 1 tablespoon of butter
• Mix 1 cup of confectioners sugar
• Add a little milk, just enough for loose frosting... Be careful adding milk. Maybe add it a drop at a time. 
• Spread frosting on cookie with a spoon
• Add sprinkles or Nonpareils

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About Potato Chip Sandwich

According to some people, men can't tell time, can't follow directions and can't cook. That's simply not true. The owner and author of the site, me.. Stan Bush can cook. This site is simply a way for me to keep up with my recipes without putting it into my other 10 or so blogs. Everything is Google-ized, so it's connected to all my other stuff. This site gets it's name from road trips when I was in my 20's. By the time we would head home all we could afford was a loaf of bread and some potato chips.