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Springerle
4 eggs, beaten 1 lb. sugar 1 lb. flour anise seed Beat eggs and sugar together for 1/2 hour; add flour and work dough on molding board for 1/2 hour. Roll out 1/4-in. thick and cut with pastry wheel. Place on well greased baking sheet, sprinkle with anise seed and bake in a hot oven until a light yellow. Makes 5 doz. 1 1/2-in. square cookies.
A four-ingredient dough that depends almost entirely on technique: long beating, long kneading, and a rest that this printing leaves out.
- Dry them before bakingSpringerle are set out uncovered for 8 to 24 hours after shaping so the surface skins over; that crust is what keeps the printed image from slumping in the heat. Nothing in the ingredient list can compensate for skipping it.
- "Hot oven" is wrong for these"Hot oven" is misleading for these — in 1929 usage a hot oven is generally reckoned at about 400-450F, which will brown springerle and blur the design. They are usually baked much lower, around 300-325F, until the base is set and the top is still pale straw, which is likely what "until a light yellow" is describing.
- Weights to volumeOne pound of granulated sugar is about 2 1/4 cups; one pound of all-purpose flour is about 3 1/2 to 3 3/4 cups. Weighing is better here, since the dough must be stiff enough to hold a mould impression.
- The half-hour beatingThirty minutes of hand-whisking eggs and sugar corresponds to roughly 10 to 15 minutes in a stand mixer on medium-high, until the mixture is very pale and falls in a thick ribbon. This aeration is the only leavening in the recipe.
- Working the doughHalf an hour on the board is a long knead for a cookie, and it develops enough structure to take a sharp print. Work in the flour gradually and stop when the dough is smooth, firm and no longer tacky.
- Where the anise goesTraditional practice is to scatter the anise seed on the greased sheet and set the cookies on top of it, so the seeds perfume the base without marking the printed face. Sprinkling over the top, as written, also works but obscures the design.
- Moulds and cuttingRoll to 1/4 inch, press with a carved springerle board or rolling pin, then cut the panels apart with the pastry wheel. Without a mould you simply get a plain anise biscuit.
- Yield and keepingFive dozen 1 1/2-inch squares. They come out hard and are meant to be stored in a tin for a week or more to soften and let the anise spread.