Anise Drops

The holidays always leave me nostalgic for sweets of old, especially a crisp, button-shaped cookie with a sugar cap named the "Anise Drop". My Grandma passed some years ago, and with her the knowledge of how to successfully create this cookie. My Father & Uncles have "fond" memories of these cookies, and detail eating them out of sealed tins months after Christmas.  They recall the drops were like rocks. 

Grandma's Anise Drop Recipe

As a family, we have been battling to recreate her recipe, with little success. My Grandma was a practical woman, believing in common sense. This common sense has transferred over to her recorded recipes, each one assuming that the reader would hold her same level of common sense. This is not the case. Our cookies just wouldn't turn out. Not at all. 

This year, the bug bit & a new quest started, on a whim, I Googled "Anise Drop" and was directed to a recipe from the blog All Through The Year Cheer & adapted it to be gluten free, as follows:

Gluten-Free Anise Drop Cookies

*We Doubled the batch, and our yield was 32, 2" cookies

2 eggs

1 c sugar

1 Cup Bob's Redmill Gluten Free Flour Mix  plus 1/4 tsp Xanthan Gum *Regular Flour may be used, or a gluten free mix already containing Xanthan Gum in equal parts.

4 tsp anise seed 

2 tsp lemon zest

Pinch salt

Butter, to liberally grease the baking sheet *Liberally is an understatement. We recommend using parchment or aluminum foil liners, in addition to the grease.

Cream together the egg, sugar, and anise oil until light and fluffy- you will beat them longer than you think you need to, probably for about 10 minutes. Please use a mixer, unless you have fore-arms of STEEL. In a separate bowl, mix together the flour, anise seed, lemon zest, and salt. Beat the dry ingredients into the wet one spoonful at a time. Our dough had the consistency of warm marshmallow fluff or really thick carmel. Drop by spoonfuls onto a greased cookie sheet, 1-inch apart. (We are going to use a piping bag for our next batch, in attempts to get a smaller, neater cookie) Let stand AT LEAST 12 hours or overnight (dough will harden). Bake at 300F for 20-25 minutes until the cookies are puffed and look like mushroom caps, and the bottoms are lightly golden. Allow to cool completely to release from cookie sheets. Store in an air-tight container. Enjoy :)

The recipe at All Through The Year Cheer provided just enough guidance that we feel confidant in approaching Grandma's recipe, next time. Here's Ours, aren't they pretty?

Anise Drops, So, So yummy :)

Welcome to the '50's!

Re-Greetings, Foodlove! A job change, a few life changes, and a huge move later, I'm back! I'm also fresh, renewed, and have a new food world to conquer on the sunny central coast of California!

To celebrate settling in, I bring you a recipe to make a proper homemaker proud: The Rice Crispy Treat. 1) I have never made Rice Crispy treats before today. 2) I needed a gluten-free treat for a work function. 3) I stumbled upon an updated recipe via traceysculinaryadventures.blogspot.com.

(Please Click Image for Source)

As stated by Wikipedia; "Rice Krispies Treats (also called Rice Krispies squares, bars or cakes) are a sweet dessert or snack made from Rice Krispies, melted butter or margarine, and melted marshmallows.^[1] Sometimes marshmallows and/or cereal that is seasonal is used to make these treats holiday-specific. While they can be made at home, they can be purchased in stores, usually packaged under the Rice Krispies brand.

Rice Krispies Treats were invented in the 1920s^[2] or 1930s^[3] by Mildred Day and the staff at the Kellogg Company home economics department as a fund raiser for Camp Fire Girls.^[2]"

In this instance, the history isn't nearly as important as what I've gleaned from the experience of making these treats.

The recipe put forward by tracey's adventures comes from Joanne Chang's cook book Flour: Spectacular Recipes from Boston's Flour Bakery + Cafe and is as follows:

Brown Butter Rice Krispie Treats

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter

1/2 vanilla bean (or substitute 1 - 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract)

2 10-oz bags marshmallows

1/2 teaspoon kosher salt

9 cups crispy rice cereal

Spray a 9x13-inch baking pan with cooking spray.

Add the butter to a large saucepan set over low heat. Scrape the seeds from the vanilla bean into the pan with the butter. The butter will melt then begin to bubble and foam. Eventually it will start to turn brown and smell nutty - be patient and watch carefully, it can go from brown to burned quickly. Once the butter is browned, add all of the marshmallows and the salt. Stir the mixture constantly until the marshmallows are completely melted.

Turn off the heat under the pan and add the cereal. Use a rubber spatula or wooden spoon to coat the cereal evenly with the buttery, marshmallow liquid. Spread the mixture in an even layer in the prepared baking pan. Let cool for at least an hour before cutting and serving.

You can store the treats in an airtight container at room temperature for 2 days.

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These are possibly the BEST Rice Krispy treats I have ever had. Period. I am very, very excited to share them with my coworkers!

LESSONS LEARNED:

1) Housewives of the 50's must have had very, very strong forearms. Making these treats requires a *copious* amount of stirring with increasing resistance. We doubled the batch, and the stirring required to melt the marshmallows evenly required quite a bit of stir-power with a wooden spoon. It's on par with whipping cream by hand, at this point in the game.

2) DO NOT dump cold vanilla extract directly into the marshmallow/butter mix. The vanilla extract will cause a small explosion. Please drizzle instead.

3) The stirring gets MUCH harder when you add an entire box of rice krispies. You wouldn't think snap, crackle and pop could be so... solid. Combining the cereal with the AWESOME marshmallow is comparable to mixing cement. That is already starting to set. I suggest having a friend to help you... preferably one with superior muscle mass to yourself.

4) Work very, very quickly. Those marshmallows set fast, yo!

5) If you intend to take these to a function, put them away IMMEDIATELY. They are delicious. DELICIOUS.