Thursday, December 13, 2007

Christmas cookies: Anis Brotli or Chrabeli (anise cookies)

Anise Cookies

4 eggs
500g powdered sugar (4.5 cups according to this)
2 Tablespoons anise seed
1 Tablespoon kirsch
500g flour (3.5 cups based on the same source)

With a mixer, mix very well the eggs and the powdered sugar. Martin's mom has a note that it takes a long time, but then again that is from before the time there were machines to do the mixing. Add the anise and the kirsch. Mix in the flour. The dough should be firm.

Take some of the dough, roll it out into a long snake perhaps an inch in diameter, cut that snake into pieces perhaps 3 inches long, and cut two notches in each piece. Our downstairs neighbor called these cookies bear paws, and I can see why she named them that. Put the cookies onto a baking sheet, and let them dry for a day. The idea is to get a dry crust on top, so when they expand during baking, they only expand downward through the dough that has not dried, lifting the entire cookie up.

Bake in a 140 C oven (285F, so that's roughy 300F) for 15-20 mins, with the oven door slightly ajar, for example, by sticking a wooden spatula in it.

Martin cutting out the cookies:


Cookies drying:


Baked cookies, with the "foot" they got when they rose during the baking.

No comments: