Springerle

(Prepare One Month before Christmas)

Four large eggs

One pound of 10X powdered sugar

One pinch of salt

¼ tablespoon anise oil

Four cups of flour (or a single one pound sack which will save measuring)

¼ tablespoon baking powder

One teaspoon glycerin (optional)

Preparation Steps:

1. Combine eggs, sugar, and salt.

2. Beat on medium speed in mixer for fifteen minutes

3. Add anise oil.

4. Stir flour and baking powder into mix.

5. Roll no thinner than ¼ inch, being careful not to get cookie too thin.

6. Press floured mold onto dough.

7. Cut apart and place on buttered sheets, about one inch apart.

8. Allow to dry for four to six hours.

9. Bake at 325 degrees for fifteen minutes.

10. Do not brown.

NOTE: “Because of my own Pennsylvania Deutsch (German) ancestry and because I grow anise seeds, Springerle is high on my list…This is a cookie which needs several weeks to ‘ripen.’ A trick to allow you to skip this period if you are short on time is to add one teaspoon of glycerin (from the drug store) to the recipe.

SOURCE: Modified from Hope S. Richardson, Christmas Herbs with Hope, (Columbus, OH; DaySpring Publications, 1991), p. 30.