Anise Drops (Pg 64)

I'm one of those strange people who really likes black jelly beans and black licorice. Your Mother probably warned you about people like me.

For those who don't know, that strange, indescribable flavor of black licorice comes from an herb called Anise. Hence, I like to call these "Black Jelly Bean Cookies" even though they are not black and look nothing like a jelly bean.

Needless to say, I love these cookies. I must admit they are pretty strange. Anise is not a flavor you expect from a cookie. The texture is also unexpected. It's chewy on the inside and the outside is almost like a crisp wafer.

A lot of these got stuck on my cookie sheets but then I realized that I wasn't quite baking them long enough. They got stuck because the centers were still a little soft and the outside hadn't completely hardened into the wafer shell. So I cooked the last batch a minute longer and they came out perfectly, but before that there were a lot of mushy cookie centers being stuck to the cookie sheet. The cookies are still edible, of course, they just have a bit of a hole in the bottom.

I have to warn people before they eat these. Before I offer you one, I will ask you if you like black jelly beans. If you don't like black jelly beans, you will not like this cookie. If you do like black jelly beans, you'll probably love this cookie. I love it.


Yield:

Recipe predicts: About 4 dozen.
Actual: About 3 dozen.

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