Springerle

By John, 29 December, 2012
Description

Springerle CookiesThese old-fashioned tile cookies are made with a special rolling pin that you can find in some fancy cook shops for big dollars, or at many antiques shows for small dollars. The key is to get a real hardwood rolling pin that you can use, not a decorative one made of pine in a factory in China that has no idea what springerle are.

They take time and cooperative weather to make, because after you roll them out they must dry overnight before baking.

Yield
60 Servings
Preparation time
6 hours
Ingredients
4 Eggs
2 c Sugar
3 1⁄2 c Flour
1⁄2 t Baking Powder
2 T Anise Seed (crushed)
Instructions
  1. Beat the eggs until light.
  2. Add the sugar, slowly.
  3. Sift the baking powder into 3 cups of the flour, then add the mixture to the egg-sugar mixture.
  4. Sprinkle the remaining half-cup of flour on a pastry cloth and gently work the dough until it takes up the flour and is somewhat stiff.
  5. Roll the dough out with a regular rolling pin into a rectangle of about 1/3 of an inch thickness.  
  6. Roll over it with the Springerle pin to emboss the shapes. Don't press too hard.
  7. Cut the shapes into neat tiles and set them on a dry wooden board or linen towel to dry overnight.
  8. The next day, preheat the oven to 300.
  9. Grease a cookie sheet and sprinkle it with the anise seed.
  10. Set the tiles atop the seed and bake for 15 minutes, until the bottoms of the cookies are yellow.
Notes
Note that these bake at a slow 300 degrees!
Source
The Joy of Cooking