Description
Try making this New Mexico state cookie at home!
Ingredients
Scale
- 3 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 3 tsp crushed anise seed
- Zest of one orange
- 1 1/4 cups lard
- 3/4 cups sugar
- 1 large egg
- 1 tsp pure vanilla extract
- 1 cup sugar
- 2 tsp ground cinnamon
Instructions
- In a medium bowl, sift together flour, baking powder, and salt. Whisk in the crushed anise and orange zest.
- In a separate large bowl, combine the sugar and lard. Using an electric mixer, beat the lard and sugar until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add the egg and vanilla and beat to combine.
- Gradually beat in the flour mixture and stop as soon as mixture is combined. The dough will be crumbly and resemble pie crust dough.
- Using your hands, work the dough into a ball, like you would when making a pie crust, incorporating all the loose pieces of flour mixture. Wrap in plastic and refrigerate the dough for 30 minutes.
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line baking sheet with parchment paper. In a small bowl, combine the sugar and cinnamon for the topping.
- Take the chilled dough and separate it into three balls, roughly the same size. Take one dough ball at a time and work it into your hands, kneading it until it is soft and smooth. If it feels crumbly when you try to roll it out, just knead it a little more until it comes together – the lard needs a little extra help. On a lightly floured surface, roll out the dough to 1/4 inch thickness.
- Cut out cookies using a circle or star shaped cutter.
- Place cookies on a lined baking sheet and bake until just barely golden and set, about 10 to 12 minutes (be careful not to overcook!). Let cookies cool for 10 minutes on the pan (they will crumble if you take them off any sooner). While they are on the pan, sprinkle them with some of the cinnamon and sugar mixture. When they’ve cooled for 10 minutes, you can then carefully dunk them into the sugar mixture, place on cookie rack until completely cooled.