This month’s recipe is from Ellie Ford. She says:

I’m sharing a recipe for one of my favorites, Anisette Cookies. If you’re not familiar with anise flavoring, it’s vaguely reminiscent of black licorice, but much milder. Very fragrant.

The recipe calls for both lemon extract and anise extract (just trust me). If you’re going for “wow” factor and want to pack a flavor punch with these cookies, include the lemon.

If you’re not into lemon, or want a more neutrally delicious cookie, swap in vanilla extract. This is what I do if I’m bringing the cookies to somewhere with a big crowd and I want to play it safe. People tend to expect a vanilla flavor from cookies with this color and this frosting, so sometimes you don’t want to knock their socks off with lemon and anise all at once. Alternatively, you can put a little yellow food coloring into your glaze to signal that they are lemon-y.

Lemon Anisette Cookies
Yields 3 dozen little cookies

Ingredients:

• 1 cup butter, softened
• ¾ cup sugar
• 1 teaspoon anise extract (I double this for a stronger flavor)
• 1 teaspoon lemon extract (can substitute vanilla extract)
• 3 eggs
• ¼ teaspoon salt
• 3 teaspoons baking powder
• 3 cups flour

For the glaze:

• About 1 cup powdered sugar
• Milk
• Food coloring (optional)

Recipe Instructions:

1. Preheat your oven to 350° F.
2. In a stand mixer or with a hand mixer, combine butter and sugar and beat until it’s creamy.
3. Stir in flavor extracts.
4. Mix in eggs.
5. Add salt and baking powder and mix.
6. Mix in flour. The dough should be just a bit crumbly but should stick together when you roll it into a ball.
7. Form 1-inch balls with the dough and place them on an ungreased cookie sheet. It’s important that all the cookies be about the same size for even cooking.
8. Bake for about 15 minutes until the bottoms of the cookies are just slightly turning gold.
9. Place the cookies on a rack to cool.
10. Make your glaze—mix powdered sugar with milk until it reaches the desired consistency. Add coloring if desired.
11. Dip cookies in the glaze and place on parchment paper or a rack to harden.
12. If you’d like, add sprinkles.