I’m British, so naturally, I love the licorice flavor in Italian anisette cookies. My children, on the other hand, are not the biggest fan of licorice. You can certainly replace the anise extract in this recipe with lemon or vanilla extract if you have people who love the texture of these cookies, but not the licorice flavor. They will taste delicious either way, I promise! These anisette cookies are a holiday dessert favorite, just like these Thumbprint Cookies that everyone goes crazy over.
Italian Anisette Cookies
Whether you choose to make these cookies with anise or without, they always seem to be a crowd pleaser. Since this recipe makes a lot of cookies, they also make the perfect treats to bring along to a holiday gathering or family get-together.
If you’re making these anisette cookies for your Thanksgiving gathering, be sure to check out how to make an easy leftover Thanksgiving bowl and these adorable Thanksgiving sugar cookies!
Ingredients for Italian Anisette Cookies
For the cookies:
- 1/2 cup butter or margarine
- 1/4 cup shortening
- 3/4 cup granulated sugar
- 4 eggs
- 3 cups all-purpose flour
- 5 teaspoons baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoons salt
- 2 teaspoons anise extract (can use vanilla or lemon extract instead)
For the glaze:
- 2 cups confectioners’ sugar, sifted
- 2-4 tablespoons milk
Helpful Kitchen Tools
How to make Italian anisette cookies
For cookies:
- Melt butter and shortening together. Add the sugar; mix well. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Mix in the anise extract. Sift or whisk together flour, baking powder, and salt.
- Add to creamed mixture gradually. If the dough is too sticky to roll in the palm of your hand, add flour until firmer, but it should be very soft.
- Roll dough into small balls (these tend to really puff up with all the baking powder in them!) and place on ungreased cookie sheets.
- Bake @ 375 degrees for 8-10 minutes (the bottom should be lightly browned but the tops should remain light). Remove cookies to wire rack and cool completely before glazing.
Amanda’s Notes: The first time I tried this recipe I think I added a bit too flour much. The tops of my cookies cracked, so be careful with measuring your flour correctly! I also used my cookie scoop and filled it half way, which seemed to work pretty well.
For the glaze:
- Mix milk GRADUALLY into confectioners’ sugar to make a thick glaze… make sure to keep it on the thick side.
- Dip top of each cookie into glaze. Sprinkle with colored jimmies or nonpareils while glaze is still wet.
- I usually dip 10-12 cookies, return them to the wire rack (with wax paper under the racks to aid in clean up!) and then sprinkle those cookies before starting to dip more.
Amanda’s notes: I dipped and sprinkled 5 at a time, that seemed to be the magic number before the glaze would start to harden.
This Italian anisette cookies recipe makes a lot of cookies, depending on how large you roll them. I usually roll the dough into 3/4″ balls-maybe a little bit smaller-I get about 100 cookies from one batch when I roll them this size.
Amanda’s notes: I made mine a little bigger and got 75 out of my dough.
I hope you enjoy these anisette cookies as much as my family and I do! I love the fact that this recipe makes so many cookies, that means I have a little sweet treat to snack on throughout the week. I just have to make sure I set some aside in my secret stash so the kids don’t devour them all before I can get any!
If you’re a licorice fan like me you might want to make these black licorice caramels from Barbara Bakes and these Lemon Licorice Cupcakes from Shugary Sweets!
Cookie fanatic? Be sure to check out all the cookie recipes on the blog! Some favorites include…
- Monster Cookies
- Crisco Peanut Butter Cookies
- The Best Chocolate Chip Cookie Cecipe Ever
- Chocolate Snow Cookies
- Grandma’s Sugar Cookies
- Frosted Sugar Cookie Bars
- Chocolate Peanut Butter Cookies
This post was originally published on this blog on December 8, 2008.
Italian Anisette Cookies
Ingredients
Cookies:
- 1/2 cup unsalted butter or margarine
- 1/4 cup shortening
- 3/4 cup granulated sugar
- 4 large eggs
- 3 cups all-purpose flour
- 5 tsp. baking powder
- 1/2 tsp. salt
- 2 tsp. anise extract can use vanilla or lemon extract instead
Glaze:
- 2 cups confectioners’ sugar sifted
- 3 Tbsp. milk
Helpful Kitchen Tools:
Instructions
For cookies:
- Melt butter and shortening together. Add the sugar; mix well. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Mix in the anise extract. Sift or whisk together flour, baking powder and salt. Add to creamed mixture gradually. If the dough is too sticky to roll in the palm of your hand, add flour until firmer, but it should be very soft. Roll dough in small balls (these tend to really puff up with all the baking powder in them!) and place on ungreased cookie sheets. Bake @ 375 degrees for 8-10 minutes (the bottom should be lightly browned but the tops should remain light). Remove cookies to wire rack and cool completely before glazing.
Amanda’s notes:
- Next time I will be more careful with the flour, I think I added a bit too much. The tops of my cookies cracked. I also used my cookie scoop and filled it half way, which seemed to work pretty well.
Glaze:
- Mix milk GRADUALLY into confectioners’ sugar to make a thick glaze… make sure to keep it on the thick side. Dip top of each cookie into glaze. Sprinkle with colored jimmies or nonpareils while glaze is still wet. I usually dip 10-12 cookies, return them to the wire rack (with wax paper under the racks to aid in clean up!) and then sprinkle those cookies before starting to dip more.
Amanda’s notes:
- I dipped and sprinkled 5 at a time, that seemed to be the magic number before the glaze would start to harden.
Video
Notes
- You can substitute 1 tsp. vanilla and 1 tsp. almond extract for the anisette if you really don't like licorice flavor.
- Makes a lot of cookies, depending on how large you roll them. I usually roll the dough into 3/4-inch balls-maybe a little bit smaller-I get about 100 cookies from one batch when I roll them this size.
- If you make them a little bigger you will get about 75 cookies.
Nutrition
Amanda Formaro
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Julie says
Can this dough be frozen?
Amanda Formaro says
I have not frozen the dough myself, but most cookie dough can be successfully frozen and I’m assuming this is no exception! :)
Becky says
I ended up using almond extract and unrefined coconut oil (the stiff kind) in place of the shortening. I also put a couple drops of Young Living orange essential oil into the icing. Very tasty. I could taste the orange in the icing before it went on the cookie, but eating it with the cookie I couldn’t taste it as much because the cookie itself is a bit overwhelmed with the almond extract. No coconut flavor either from the coconut oil which is ok by me. So kind of non-traditional but I like to experiment. This is my first time attempting Italian Cookies. I’m happy with them.
Amanda Formaro says
Fun changes, so glad you enjoyed them!
Cookie says
In the video for the annisette cookies it says to use baking soda but the recipe calls for baking powder.Could you please tell me which one is it. Thank You
Amanda Formaro says
The recipe! Sorry about that error in the video!
Barbara Marino says
Looking at your receipts, I married into an Italian family and mother in law was a very good Cook and baker, she never had a recipe book. My husband was an only child and doesn’t have any relatives near us to get recipes. If you post recipes, I am giving you my e-mail address.
Gina Allen says
I am a little confused, I will be making these soon. You talk about taking the butter out of refrigerator 30 minutes prior to baking, but the receipt says to melt the butter and shortening together. I also believe the video shows that also, so what is correct? Thanks.
Amanda Formaro says
Hi Gina. I apologize for the confusion. The butter and shortening should be melted together. Let them cool a bit before combining. I have edited the comments that you are referring to with the confusing comments. Thanks!
mary ann demore says
DO you melt the butter and shorting in a pan on the stove ?
Amanda Formaro says
I just use the microwave
Elien says
I made these cookies with the exact amounts as listed and they came out great… with my oven I found 8 minutes caused the bottom to get too dark and I baked them for 7 minutes at 375 degrees and am happy with the result! Definitely will save this recipe!
Amanda Formaro says
Thanks so much, I’m so happy to enjoyed them!
Jena says
Can Anisette liqueur be used instead of extract?
Amanda Formaro says
You could but I believe you would need more than the measurement of the extract. And I would be concerned that the amount of liquid would affect the finished dough.
Matt F says
I did something wrong because I ended up with soup. I watched the video and it looks more like a 1/2 stick of butter (1/4c) as opposed to a full stick (1/2c)?
My mixture didn’t start to come close to thickening up until I added my 5th cup of flour, and even then it was still not a ball-able consistency.
If you have any thoughts I’ll take them. Looking to add a good recipe to the box.
Amanda Formaro says
Hi Matt. I can see how the video would look confusing. It’s a recipe that makes a lot of cookies, so when we made the video we cut the recipe in half. Edited my comment after seeing your follow up. Glad you got it figured out!
Matt F says
Actually, it was a foolish error on my side. I was so excited for the frosting that I took the confectioner’s sugar out during the cookie stage instead of the flour. Clearly I don’t spend anywhere enough time cooking! I’m looking forward to giving them another shot … I’m sure they’ll be awesome!
Darlene cziraky says
Looking to make anise cookie. Do you have to use shortening or can you substitute something else?
Amanda Formaro says
I have not tried substituting with this recipe – however you should be able to substitute butter in equal amounts.
Annemarie Clark says
I made these today they came out great I only made half the recipe I only got 25 cookies out of it
Amanda Formaro says
Glad you enjoyed it! :)
Joan Prezioso says
Once the cookies are iced would they stay fresh in the refrigerator or freezer.
Amanda Formaro says
Icing doesn’t freeze particularly well, so I recommend baking and freezing the cookies, then thawing and icing afterward.
trish says
have you tried freezing them before? how did you do it? would you recommend baking and then freezing or freezing the dough before baking?
Amanda Formaro says
I would recommend making the dough and freezing it, then bringing to room temp when you want to bake them. Or you can form them into balls and freeze the balls.
Aviva says
Can these be frozen before baking?
Thanks
Amanda Formaro says
I haven’t tried, however most cookie doughs freeze just fine. I would probably roll them into balls first and place them on wax paper lined pans so that none are touching. Freeze those, then after they are frozen you can pop all the balls into a freezer bag. Freezing them individually first will keep them from sticking together.
Joyce G. says
My Mom and Aunt being Italian would make these. They would roll the dough in a log and cut on the diagonal. My aunt (Tillie-Italia) would love giving these away to friends.. Nice memories.
Amanda Formaro says
Thanks so much for sharing that memory Joyce! :) :)