Bizcochitos

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These cookies are memorable of my time as a kid.  Walking into the house after school, my food radar always detected the freshly baked smell of anise and cinnamon.  Then the cookie attack began.  These awesome cookies are said to originate in the State of New Mexico, the recipe brought there by the early Spanish colonizers.  Lola, my mom, was raised in Chihuahua Mexico, therefore, I surmise the Spaniards must have passed by her town?  Here are the facts of my revised history:

The Spaniard Alvar Nuñez Cabeza de Vaca reached the Rio Conchos, a primary river in Chihuahua in 1533.  In 1561 Captain Francisco de Ibarra was authorized by the Viceroy of Nueva España (Central and Southern Mexico) to colonize the territories of the north.  This would include the current states of Chihuahua, Durango, Sonora & Sinaloa and beyond to New Mexico and California…..It’s all connected.

The signature flavor in bizcochitos is anise, the tiny aromatic seed similar in flavor to licorice or fennel, but far subtler, more floral.  I have substituted ground star anise, but use it sparingly.  These cookies are made with lard (which has 20 percent less saturated fat than butter; it’s also higher in monounsaturated fats).  You can substitute butter or vegetable shortening, but they won’t be the same.  Let’s get started.

 

 

Ingredients

3 cups flour

1 ½ teaspoons baking powder

½  teaspoon  salt

¾ cup sugar

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1 cup lard  (190 grams or 6.7 oz)  

1 ¼ teaspoons anise seeds

1 egg

2 tablespoons cold water 

 

Preparation

1. Preheat oven to 400° F.  Sift together flour, baking powder, and salt into a medium bowl and set aside.  Combine ¼ cup of the sugar with cinnamon in a small bowl and set aside.

2. Put lard and the remaining ½ cup of sugar into the bowl of a standing mixer fitted with a paddle and beat on medium speed until fluffy, about 1 minute.  Add anise seeds and egg and beat, stopping mixer once or twice to scrape down sides of bowl with a rubber spatula, until well mixed, about 1 minute.  Reduce speed to low, then gradually add flour mixture, scraping sides of bowl as needed, and beat until dough begins to gather into a ball and comes cleanly away from sides of bowl, about 2 minutes.  (If dough is too dry to come together, add a little water to obtain a smooth ball). Transfer dough to a lightly floured surface and divide in half, then shape each half into a smooth ball.  Cover with a clean dish towel and set aside to let rest for 20 minutes.

 

 

3. Roll out half of the dough on a lightly floured surface to a thickness of about ⅛ “.  Cut into desired shapes with a cookie cutter and arrange 1″ apart on ungreased cookie sheets.  Bake until golden, about 10 minutes. 

 

 

4. Transfer cookies to a wire rack and sprinkle with reserved cinnamon-sugar mixture while still warm. Repeat the process with remaining half of dough.

 

 

Note

The New Mexico Legislature adopted the biscochito as the official state cookie in 1989.  By this act, New Mexico is the first state to have an official state cookie.  Recipe from Savuer Magazine, November 2007..

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