1 c Sugar
1 c Butter
3 tb Sweet sherry
1 Egg
3 c Flour
2 ts Baking powder
2 ts Anise seed; crushed -OR-
1 ts Anise oil
1/4 ts Salt
1/4 c Sugar
1 ts Cinnamon
(These are crisp Mexican butter cookies, flavored with sugar,
cinnamon, and anise. The dough is rolled thin and traditionally
cut into crosses, stars, and moons. -JW)
Heat oven to 350 F. Mix sugar and butter, sherry and egg in a
large bowl. Stir in the remaining ingredients except the 1/4 cup
sugar and the cinnamon. Divide dough into two balls. Roll out each
ball to 1/4 inch thick and cut into any shape with cookie cutters.
Place on ungreased sheet. Mix together the sugar and cinnamon and
sprinkle on the cookies before baking. Bake 10-12 minutes until
golden.
These cookies are cute made into a cactus shape. Pinch off balls
of dough, one larger than a quarter and 2 the size of a nickel.
Roll each of the balls between your palms to make cigar shape.
Flatten the large one to make the main stem of the cactus. Bend
one third of each of the two smaller ones to make a J shape and
attach them at uneven intervals on each side to make the "arms".
Flatten them to match the trunk and bake.
