Rosquitas de Anis

AnisE-Sesame Wreath Cookies

I’ve never been exactly what you would call tímido, shy. Once, when I was nine or ten, I walked past a rickety abandoned warehouse that smelled like freshly baked cookies (unlicensed bakeries weren’t uncommon finds). The door was partly open, so I walked right in. After a while, the owner of the bakery saw me poking around and started yelling at me. I guess he thought this little kid was there to steal cookies. The guy was covered head to toe in flour, like some giant snow monster. At first I was scared, then I told him I was there to do business. He laughed and turned away until he realized I was serious.

Selling the bakery’s anise-spiced rosquitas became a pretty good after-school gig for the next couple of months. The braided, crisp, biscottilike cookies are sturdy enough to survive a school bag and aren’t too sweet, so they make a good snack. I stacked the rosquitas neatly in plastic bags, one on top of the other, tied them off, and took them to school in a big basket. (For the record, I sold them all the next day.) This version is my tribute to the classic cookies that I still love.

1 Heat a small saucepan over medium-high heat until good and hot. Add the aniseeds and toast, stirring or shaking the pan regularly, until just beginning to smell fragrant, about 45 seconds. Transfer the seeds to a mortar and pestle. Right away, put about 2 tablespoons of the sesame seeds into the hot pan and toast, stirring continuously, until half or more turn light brown, about 1 minute. Transfer the seeds to a small dish. You may need to use a folded paper towel or rubber spatula to nudge the last stubborn seeds out of the pan. Add the salt to the mortar and pestle and coarsely grind the aniseeds until you can smell all of their good flavors. Many of the seeds will still look whole, which is fine.

2 In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, combine the butter, flour, sugar, anise, and sesame seeds. Cover the top of the mixer bowl with a kitchen towel (to avoid a kitchen snow flurry) and mix on low speed until the butter is crumbly and the mixture looks like dry pie dough, about 1 minute. Or, to make the cookies by hand, put everything in a large bowl and mix the butter into the dry ingredients with your fingers.

3 Pour ¼ cup plus 2 tablespoons water and the vanilla on top of the dough and mix again until the dough just starts to come together. If using a stand mixer, you may need to turn it off and reach in and use your hands to pull the dough together into a round. Add another tablespoon of water if you need to, but the dough shouldn’t be super moist. Cover with plastic wrap or a kitchen towel and let the dough rest at room temperature for 30 minutes to 1 hour.

4 Preheat the oven to 350°F and line two baking sheets with parchment paper. Mix together the egg yolk and 2 teaspoons water in a ramekin or small dish. Shape the dough into 2 logs about 10 inches long and cut each log into 8 equal pieces. To shape the rosquitas, follow the instructions in the sidebar.

5 Arrange 8 rosquitas on each parchment-lined baking sheet with a solid inch of breathing room between each cookie. Brush the cookies with the egg wash, making sure to get into all of the crevices, and lightly sprinkle the remaining tablespoon or so of untoasted sesame seeds on top. Bake the cookies until light golden brown on the bottom (lift one with a spatula to check; they won’t color much on the top), 20 to 22 minutes, rotating the baking sheets top to bottom and front to back halfway through. Let the cookies cool completely on the baking sheets.

6 Store the rosquitas at room temperature in a sealed container for up to 5 days. The cookies will soften up after a day or two, also very tasty, but freeze them if you prefer a crunchier cookie.

Shaping Rosquitas

Rosquitas dough is on the drier side, which along with the sesame seeds tends to cause little cracks and crevices as your shape the dough. Instead of the more traditional powdered anise, I like the crunch and flavor of toasted anise seed, which adds even more texture. Fortunately, this is a very forgiving dough. If the cookies ever fall apart, just pinch everything back together with your fingers.

To shape rosquitas: Place one dough log on an unfloured work surface and tear it in half. Smash one half of the dough with the palm of your hand into a flat disc and pinch the dough into a log roughly 3 inches long with your fingers (it doesn’t need to be perfectly shaped). Roll the palms of both hands back and forth over the top of the log, like you are making a snake out of clay, until it is about 7 inches long. Whenever the log breaks, just pinch the dough back together with your fingers. Do the same with the remaining half of the dough.

Line up the two strands of dough side by side and pinch the top ends together. Cross one strand on top of the other three or four times to braid them loosely together, like you are making challah bread. Form the braid into a circle and gently pinch the two ends together to make a small, wreathlike shape. You can dip your fingers into water to help pinch together the ends, if needed, but the wreath doesn’t need to be perfect. Repeat with the remaining dough.