These delightful Biscochitos cookies are anise-flavored cookies that are beloved in New Mexico with a buttery cookie coated in a cinnamon sugar mixture usually enjoyed during the holiday season or on special occasions.
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What are Biscochitos?
Biscochitos are traditional cookies from New Mexico, known for their unique Southwestern flavor and delicate texture. They are typically made with butter, flour, sugar, and a blend of warm spices like anise and cinnamon.
Ingredients and substitutions for Biscochitos
- Butter: Unsalted butter is used here, but if all you have on hand is salted, that works as a fine substitute, just leave out any salt suggested in the recipe. Lard is most often a more traditional ingredient than butter. If using lard, the weight required for this recipe would be 112 grams/3.9 ounces.
- Sugar: Superfine or caster sugar helps sweeten without adding additional flavors.
- Eggs: The egg binds and adds structure resulting in that soft interior that compliments the sugar and butter.
- Flour: Plain or all purpose flour is best for a nice light crumb.
- Baking powder: This helps our cookies rise so they are not stodgy.
- Brandy: Traditional brandy is used in this recipe helping compliment the rich flavors in the anise dough. You could replace with wine or even juice in equal measure here.
- Anise: Anise seed is traditionally used here and has a much subtler flavor when compared to star anise. If you cannot source anise seed, you can replace with ground star anise, however, youโll want to halve.
- Ground cinnamon: The ground cinnamon in our sugar coating also gives our cookies their signature flavor.
See recipe card for quantities.
How to make Biscochitos:
Step 1: Sift: Toss the dry ingredients into a bowl and stir together.
Step 2: Cream it: Cream the butter and sugar.
Step 3: Egg it: Add in the egg and wine or juice and whip until well combined and fluffy.
Step 4: Flour it up: Add the sifted ingredients in stages and beat on low until just combined.
Step 5: Chill out: Wrap the Biscochito dough and refrigerate for at least 1 hour or preferably overnight.
Step 6: Roll: Roll dough to โ thickness on a lightly floured work surface and cut out with cookie cutters.
Step 7: Bake: Place onto your baking sheet and bake in the preheated oven.
Step 8: Coating: Stir the coating ingredients together in a shallow bowl and toss the warm cookies into the coating.
Step 9: Cool: Set aside to cool completely.
Step 10: Dig in: Serve up and enjoy!
FAQ's for the best Biscochitos
Absolutely! While the traditional Biscochitos recipe is adored by many, you can add your own twist to make them unique. Consider experimenting with different flavors or incorporating ingredients like citrus zest, almond extract or ground ginger to personalize according to your taste preferences.
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Biscochitos
Ingredients
Cookies
- 240 grams / 1 ยฝ cups plain flour sifted
- 3 grams / ยพ teaspoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoons anise seed or ground anise
- ยฝ teaspoon sea salt
- 156 grams / 5.5 ounces butter softened
- 60 grams / โ cup superfine/caster sugar
- 35 grams / 1 small egg
- 14 grams / 1 tablespoon sweet white wine or any 1 of the following; brandy, rum, apple or pineapple juice
Coating
- 30 grams / 2 tablespoons superfine/caster sugar
- ยฝ teaspoon ground cinnamon
Instructions
- Toss the flour, baking powder, ground anise and salt into a bowl and stir together. Set aside.
- Place the butter and sugar into a bowl and beat on medium speed until fluffy and light, approximately 8 minutes.
- Add the egg and wine or juice and whip until well combined.
- Toss in โ of the flour mixture and beat on the lowest setting until no dry portions remain.
- Repeat in stages until the dough is formed, no dry portions remain on the sides of your bowl and it is a crumbly texture.
- Place the dough in the fridge to chill for at least 1 hour, but overnight also works well.
- Preheat the oven to 180C/350F and line baking sheets with parchment paper.
- In a separate bowl, stir the sugar and cinnamon coating together and set aside.
- Turn the dough onto a lightly floured surface and roll out to โ inch thickness.
- Cut out circles, stars or diamonds (or all three) from the dough, handling as little as possible in the process.
- Place onto a lined baking tray with 1 inch between and bake until lightly golden brown at the edges, approximately 12 minutes.
- Allow to sit on the baking sheet for a couple of minutes before tossing in the sugar cinnamon coating.
- Transfer to a cooling rack to cool completely.
- Serve up with a cup of hot chocolate and dig in.
- Enjoy!
Video
Notes
- Butter: Unsalted butter is used for the cookie, but if all you have on hand is salted, that works as a fine substitute, just leave out any salt suggested in the recipe. Lard can also be used here as that is most often a more traditional ingredient than butter for these cookies. If using lard, the weight required for this recipe would be 112 grams/3.9 ounces.
- Brandy or wine: Traditional brandy is used in this biscochito recipe helping compliment the rich flavors in the anise dough. You could use a wine or even juice in equal measure here.
- Anise: Anise seed is traditionally used here and has a much subtler flavor when compared to star anise. If you cannot source anise seed, you can replace with ground star anise in these cookies, however, youโll want to halve.?
- Ground cinnamon: The ground cinnamon in our sugar coating also gives our cookies their signature flavor.
- Cookie cutter: A round, half moon or star cookie cutter (or all three) makes these nice and traditional. The round cookie cutter used here was 6.5 centimeters or 2.6 inches.
Nutrition
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