Name: Anise Cookies
Total time: 25 min
Yield: 72 cookies
Cuisine: Italian
Ingredients: ½ cup unsalted butter or margarine; ¼ cup shortening; ¾ cup granulated sugar; 4 large eggs; 3 cups all-purpose flour; 5 teaspoons baking powder; ½ tsp. salt; 2 tsp. anise extract can use vanilla or lemon extract instead; 2 cups confectioners’ sugar sifted; 3 Tbsp. milk

These anise cookies, also called Italian Anisette Cookies, are a holiday dessert favorite, just like my Thumbprint Cookies that everyone goes crazy over.

Why we love this recipe

Whether you choose to make these cookies with anise or without, they always seem to be a crowd-pleaser. Since this recipe makes a lot of cookies, they also make the perfect treats to bring along to a holiday gathering or family get-together.

I’m British, so naturally, I love the licorice flavor in Italian anisette cookies. You can certainly replace the anise extract in this recipe with lemon or vanilla extract if you have people who love the texture of these cookies, but not the licorice flavor. They will taste delicious either way, I promise!

Ingredients you need

This recipe is a little different than most cookies in that you will melt the butter. I promise it works!

ingredients for Italian Anisette Cookies

Get all measurements, ingredients, and instructions in the printable version at the end of this post.

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How to make Italian anisette cookies

These step by step photos and instructions are here to help you visualize how to make this recipe. Please scroll down to simply print out the instructions!

For cookies:

Melt butter and shortening together. Add the sugar; mix well.
Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Mix in the anise extract.
Sift or whisk together flour, baking powder, and salt.
Add to creamed mixture gradually. If the dough is too sticky to roll in the palm of your hand, add flour until firmer, but it should be very soft.
Roll dough into small balls, about 1/2 tablespoon each, and place on ungreased cookie sheets.
Bake @ 375 degrees for 8-10 minutes (the bottom should be lightly browned but the tops should remain light). Remove cookies to wire rack and cool completely before glazing.

For the glaze:

Mix milk GRADUALLY into confectioners’ sugar to make a thick glaze… make sure to keep it on the thick side.
Dip top of each cookie into glaze.
Sprinkle with colored jimmies or nonpareils while glaze is still wet.
I usually dip 10-12 cookies, return them to the wire rack (with wax paper under the racks to aid in clean up!) and then sprinkle those cookies before starting to dip more.

Decorating tip:

Dip and sprinkle 5 cookies at a time, that seemed to be the magic number before the glaze would start to harden.

This Italian anisette cookies recipe makes a lot of cookies, depending on how large you roll them. As instructed you should get about 6 dozen.

I hope you enjoy these anisette cookies as much as my family and I do! We love the fact that this recipe makes so many cookies, which means I have a little sweet treat to snack on throughout the week.

If you’re a licorice fan like me you might want to make these black licorice caramels from Barbara Bakes and these Lemon Licorice Cupcakes from Shugary Sweets!