Easy Anise Cookies (with GF option)

Dense and moist, these Italian Anise Cookies are made with a combination of wheat flour (or gluten-free flour) and almond flour for a unique twist on the classic cookie. Top them with a simple butter and powdered sugar glaze, then add your favorite decorative sugar or sprinkles for a beautiful and delicious cookie.

Italian Anise Cookies

Full disclosure, I hated these cookies as a child. Our Italian family served them at nearly every holiday gathering, with many batches showing up at Christmastime. My sister and I would bite into these fun looking cookies, covered in frosting and sprinkles, and were so surprised when the strong anise flavor hit our taste buds. How could a cookie that looks so sweet and innocent have such an intense black licorice flavor?

Now that I’m an adult, I appreciate that unique flavor that is anise. It tastes vaguely sweet, but also with a darker nuance to it.

So, I set out to make a version of anise cookies that was perfect in my mind. These cookies are dense, moist, and with a strong anise flavor. The glaze on top has a small bit of butter added to it, which makes it slightly softer and luxurious. And, my version is topped with naturally dyed-decorative crunchy sugar, for a nice added textural element that doesn’t add any funky flavor or color.

Lastly, they’re easily made with gluten-free flour too, which is incredibly important in my household.

I won’t lie, developing this recipe took 18 batches of cookies. At this point, I’ve made this recipe so many times, I never want to look at anise cookies again. However, I’m sure I’ll change my mind come this time next year, and I can’t wait to make them for our family holiday again, year after year. Luckily, my own two children LOVE these cookies. So, now they’ll get to enjoy them too, keeping the tradition alive.

Let’s get to baking them, shall we?

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Ingredients Needed

Here is an overview of the ingredients needed for this recipe. The full recipe is listed below in greater detail.

• all-purpose flour or gluten-free 1-1 baking flour (I recommend King Arthur Flour Measure for Measure Flour or Bob’s Red Mill 1-1 Baking Flour)
• almond flour (this provides a lovely texture and moistness to the cookie)
• light olive oil (use a neutral-tasting olive oil here)
• egg
• granulated sugar
• anise extract
• vanilla extract
• salt
• baking powder
• milk
• butter
• powdered sugar
• decorative sugars or sprinkles, or non-pareils

Substitutions

Almond flour: I hate to say it, but this recipe was specifically developed with the use of almond flour in it. If you can’t have it or don’t want to use almond flour, I, unfortunately, can’t recommend a replacement, and you can’t just substitute in additional wheat flour and get the same result.

Olive oil: Theoretically, you could swap olive oil out for butter if you wanted, but you might need to use a little bit more of it, as olive oil is all fat without any added water or milk solids. I’d recommend adding in another tablespoon or two of butter if you are making the swap. Melt it before adding it to the dough. Just know, this will make the cookies less moist if you do swap it out.

Anise: I hear you, anise is not for everyone. It’s the classic flavor for this cookie, but you most certainly can swap it out for another flavor. You can keep it plain with vanilla, or use almond extract, or a citrus extract, though you’ll need a lot less. I’d recommend using about 1 teaspoon of another flavor.

Gluten-free: See below for making this gluten-free!

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Let’s Talk About the Dough

Because of the addition of almond flour, this recipe is a bit different than the traditional recipe. Almond flour adds extra fat to the dough, which results in needing less added oil. When making it, you might feel that the dough is going to be too dry, but it won’t be. Once baked up, the almond flour will add lovely moisture and a pleasing density to the cookie texture.

The dough is made simply by whisking together the wet ingredients and then adding in the dry ingredients.

One thing to note is that it’s important to try to dissolve the sugar when whisking together the wet ingredients. This cookie is baked for very little time (about 12 minutes), which doesn’t give much time for the sugar to melt. Remember, these are thick cookies. So, when you are whisking the wet ingredients together, give it a few extra seconds of whisking than you typically would, to help that sugar dissolve into the oil and egg.

To portion out the dough, use a cookie scoop. You want to use a 1-ounce cookie scoop, or about 2 tablespoons of dough. If you are weighing it, the dough is dense, so it should weigh 1-3/4 ounce.

This recipe makes 13 cookies. Double or triple it to make a larger batch.

How to Decorate the Cookies

You can truly decorate this cookie any way your heart desires once you’ve got the glaze on top.

Traditionally, in the bakeries my family shopped at, the cookies would be adorned with colorful nonpareils. In my home, we avoid artificial food coloring, so I found some fun naturally colored crunchy sprinkles (affiliate link), and I liked the added textural component. We’ve also been decorating them with naturally colored sprinkles (affiliate link), too.

Make Ahead Instructions

These cookies last up to a week, undecorated or decorated. However, don’t let the baked cookies sit out overnight, they’ll dry out. Store them in an air-tight bag or container.

I don’t recommend freezing the cookie dough, but the baked undecorated cookies can be frozen for up to 2-3 months.

Making These Cookies Gluten-Free

What I really set out for with this cookie was making it with an easy 1-1 swap of gluten-free flour. This cookie nearly can do this, but with two small minor adjustments.

They felt a bit dry when I swapped out the flour for a 1-1 gluten-free flour blend (I use Bob’s Red Mill or King Arthur Flour), so I felt like it needed about 2 tablespoons of milk added. Because the addition of milk made the cookies spread more, I recommend chilling the dough for about 30 minutes, until cold.

It stops them from spreading out, but for sure, the gluten-free version is flatter than the traditional version. However, the taste more than makes up for it. Once they are decorated, you can hardly tell.

More Holiday Dessert Recipes:

• Eggnog Pie (with Gingerbread Crust)
• Cranberry Pear Pie Minis
• Pumpkin Pie Bars
• Classic Fruit Tart

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