Italian Anise Cookies

I am not much of a coffee drinker. Never have been. But when I see these cookies I get big coffee cravings. There is just something wonderful about pairing a couple of these up with a good cup o' Joe.

Recipe:

• 1 cup softened butter
• 1 cup of sugar
• 3 large eggs
• 2 teaspoons anise extract
• 2 1/2 cups flour
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• 2 to 3 tablespoons of milk

Glaze:

2 cups confectioners sugar
3 tablespoons milk
1/8 tsp. anise extract

Instructions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line cookie sheets with parchment paper.
2. Cream the butter and sugar. Add eggs and anise extract.
3. Blend flour and baking powder. Start by adding about 1/3 of these dry ingredients to the butter and sugar in your mixer. Add 1 T. milk. Add another third of the flour and another 1 T. milk. Mix in the remaining flour.
4. Measure out the cookies by using a 1 tablespoon cookie scoop. I sprayed mine with cooking spray to keep the dough from sticking.
5. Bake cookies for 12 minutes. They should just be starting to brown on the bottoms but just barely.
6. Mix sugar, milk and extract to make a sugar glaze. It should be thin enough to dip the cookie tops.
7. Turn each cookie upside down and dip the tops into the glace. Sprinkle with multi-colored non pariels.
8. Place the cookies on a rack to cool. Let them sit out until the glace sets and store in a tight lidded container. The flavor actually gets better after the cookies sit for a few days

This is a wonderful light cookies with the texture of a soft biscotti.


This is what my dough texture looked like.


Here they are as they go into the oven.


This is what they look like when they first come out. Let them cool a bit before frosting them.


I've bought these at Italian stores for years but this is the first time I made them. I don't think I will be buying them anymore.


Halp!!!! Does anyone have a good sourdough bread recipe??? I am drowning in loaves of less than stellar sourdough and am getting quite tired of making this over and over and not getting great results. I am experiencing major sourdough fail!