4 1/2 eggs (beat one egg, pour half into bowl with the other 4)
1 pound powdered sugar (by weight)
1 pound cake flour (like Swan--the really white, fine stuff, and again, by weight)
1 fl oz flavoring (lemon, anise, almond, etc--the tiny bottles are the right size)
Whip eggs for about 6-8 minutes at a high speed if using an electric mixer, until they are soft and foamy. Use a whisk to sift through the powdered sugar to break up any lumps, or you can sift if you have a sifter. With mixer on low, add powdered sugar by half cups until well blended and airy. Add your teeny bottle of flavoring. Mix flavor in well, and then switch to the paddle attachment as the dough will get sticky and heavy. Add the flour in half-cups until mixed. Scrape the excess off of the paddle, cover bowl with a damp cloth and let dough rest for 10-15 minutes. Dough is STICKY--you will need more cake flour on your rolling surface, for your hands, your rolling pin, and your molds or your molded rolling pin. Brush flour into the surface of the mold or the pin. Use only about 1/4 of the dough at a time, and keep the damp towel covering the bowl. Use your hands to work the dough into a ball on the floured surface (like you would pie dough) and roll out to an even thickness. Press the mold into the dough, or roll the molded pin over the dough firmly enough to make an impression. Use a fluted pastry cutter or a pizza cutter to cut out the cookies. Dry on parchment paper for at least 12 hours. Bake at 300-325 degrees on the bottom rack of oven until the bottoms of the cookies are lightly browned. Small cookies can cook hotter and faster (300-325, 6-8 minutes) than large cookies (275 to 300, 12-15 minutes). Cookies should be crisp on the outside and soft in the middle. Don't brown the tops.
Comments: Wow, a two-day cookie. Anise flavor is very strong, but really good. They stay really white (if you don't over cook) and are fairly solid. Important Note: Anise oil can melt plastic. Stick to metal measuring spoons if you need to measure out a larger/smaller quantity. Some dried faster than others--I flipped the slower ones over at about 12 hours to dry the backs, as I discovered that the ones with the not-so-dry backs stuck to the parchment paper after baking. (So half the cookies are still drying as I type!) This made 4 sheets of about 1.5x1 cookies--that was the size of the patterns on my rollers. I used a pizza cutter to separate the cookies, although a pastry cutter with the ruffled/fluted edge would have been prettier. There are a few websites out there with high dollar springerle molds of all sizes that are really elaborate and beautiful, and some videos about baking and painting them with the edible food coloring/paint stuff. I'm totally not Martha Stewart, so no hand painting here. Boy is eating them as we speak, so they must be fairly decent.
