By: Angelo Biondo
As a kid, we always looked forward to the onset of the Holiday season. Our house always seemed to have ora of sweet spices from Thanksgiving through New Years. I think it was amplified by the fact that every house in the neighborhood was cooking Christmas cookies, pies, cakes and every other gourmet pastery reserved for that special time of year.
Thank God, Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Years, Saint Joseph’s Day, and Easter only come one day a year. Those are the main feast days our family celebrated by cooking meals and tasty treats that left and abundance of savory treats for weeks to come. We celebrated Saint Patrick’s Day and Dingus Day too, but we left the cooking to the specialists in those feast days.
For now we’ll concentrate on the Christmas holiday season and I’ll give you a few of my favorite Christmas recipe’s. One of my favorite is actually a combination of two Italian cookies. I don’t know who came up with the idea, my mother or grand-mother, or if it was either of their idea’s. I don’t know if it was an accident or done on purpose, but I do know it makes a delicious cookie. Its a comination of a sesame cookie and an anise cookie. Some people don’t like the flavor of anise (sort of a liqurish), so all you need do is leave out the anise extract and you have sesame cookies.
Sesame Seed Anise Cookie Recipe
Ingredients:
1 cup sugar (sifted)
3 eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 c butter (softened)
2 1/4 c flour (sifted before measuring)
1 tsp baking powder
1 tbsp anise extract
1/4 tsp (pinch) salt
1 c seseme seeds (bulk)
Instructions:
- In a heavy skillet, toast the seseme seeds at medium heat until they are a golden brown mixing constantly, then set aside to cool. This won’t take long and they will burn easily if not watched.
- Sift enough flour so you can measure out 2 1/4 cups. The recipe will turn out best if the flour is pre-sifted before measuring and set aside.
- In a large mixing bowl, beat the eggs and slowly add the sugar, anise extract, vanilla extract, and the pinch of salt
- Continue beating for 3 to 5 minutes until well mixed
- Add vanilla, and sift in baking powder.
- Stir in 1/2 cup toasted seseme seeds and continue to beat
- While still beating, slowly mix in the 2 1/4 cups sifted flour
- Mix in the 1/2 cup of softend butter and continue to beat for an additional 5 minutes or so.
- The dough should be plyable medium firm and easy to handle.
- Roll out forming a rope about the thickness of your index (middle) finger and
- cut into 2″ sections.
- Form into ovals and roll in the remaining sesame seeds
- Place on greased cookie sheet leaving at least 1 inch of space around each cookie
- Bake in a preheated 350° oven for about 18 to 20 minutes, or until lightly browned.
- Remove cookies to wire cooling rack and let cool.
- Store in tightly covered container.
The cookies will stay fresh in a tightly sealed container or jar for one to two weeks. However, we have kept them much longer than that in a cool dark pantry for much longer than that and they were great dunked in coffee.
