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Recipes with anise seed

10 recipes that use anise seed, with photos, step-by-step instructions and cook times. The quickest, New Mexico biscochitos, takes 37 minutes. It is most often cooked with sugar, plain flour and butter.

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Enyucado

Bakeries and street vendors in Cartagena, Barranquilla and Montería sell enyucado by the square, wrapped in paper, as an afternoon sweet with coffee. It is a dense, moist cassava cake held together by coconut milk, sweetened with sugar, scented with aniseed and given a salty edge by grated white cheese; the top bakes to a golden, slightly chewy crust while the middle stays soft and pudding-like. It is also a fixture at birthday and holiday tables along the coast. Queso costeño is the cheese used; a firm feta-style one is the nearest swap, and as both are usually set with animal rennet, choose a vegetarian (microbial-rennet) cheese. People most often go wrong by cutting it warm: the starch needs at least an hour to set, otherwise the slices are gummy and fall apart. Frozen grated cassava from Latin or African shops saves a lot of work. Chef's tip: squeeze the grated cassava lightly so the cake sets well but stays moist.

75 minColombianDessertsGluten free
by KrazyBadal 0 views

Flaó

Flaó is what Ibiza and Formentera bake for Easter Sunday: a shallow pie whose filling of fresh sheep's or goat's cheese, eggs and sugar is perfumed with spearmint (hierbabuena), set in a crust flavoured with anise. Families still take theirs to the village baker to be fired, and it appears on café counters in Sant Antoni and Eivissa town through spring. Traditional island fresh cheese is made with animal rennet; look for a vegetarian fresh goat's cheese or use ricotta made with a vegetarian coagulant. Many cooks add a splash of anise liqueur to the dough; this version uses crushed anise seed and water, so it has no alcohol. Chef's tip: tear the mint leaves rather than chop them, and press half into the filling and lay half on top, so every bite gets it.

85 minSpanishBaking
by KrazyBadal 0 views

Truchas de batata

Despite the name, there is no trout in these: truchas are crisp half-moon pastries that Tenerife and Gran Canaria fry by the hundred in the week before Christmas, and they are what neighbours bring each other on Christmas Eve. The filling is mashed sweet potato with ground almonds, sugar, lemon zest, cinnamon and anise, wrapped in a thin olive-oil dough. Some families add a spoon of anise liqueur or sweet wine to the dough; this version uses neither and is vegan. Chef's tip: let the filling cool completely and keep it thick, or the steam softens the dough and it bursts in the oil.

90 minSpanishDessertsVegan
by KrazyBadal 0 views

New Mexico biscochitos

Biscochitos are New Mexico's official state cookie, baked by the thousand at Christmas, weddings and baptisms in Hispanic homes from Las Cruces to Taos. They are crumbly, short and scented with anise seed, cut into stars or fleurs-de-lis and dipped in cinnamon sugar. Grandmothers use lard, which gives the classic texture; this version uses butter so it stays vegetarian. Traditional recipes add a splash of brandy; here orange juice is used instead. Chef's tip: lightly crush the anise seeds to release the flavour.

37 minAmericanBaking
by KrazyBadal 0 views

Bollo de yuca

Along the Caribbean coast from Cartagena to Santa Marta, the bollo de yuca is a staple to set beside fried fish, a bowl of soup or a slice of fresh white cheese. Raw cassava is grated, kneaded with a little salt and sometimes a few anise seeds, then wrapped and boiled until it turns translucent and pleasantly chewy, with a mild, slightly sweet flavour. Market sellers stack them by the dozen, and they keep well, so many households buy enough for several days. Cassava must always be fully cooked and peeled down past the pink inner layer, since the raw root contains natural toxins that cooking removes. Squeezing the grated cassava too hard is the error that ruins it: bone-dry dough gives tough, rubbery bollos, so you only want to press out the loose juice. Frozen grated cassava from Latin or African shops works well. Chef's tip: wet your hands before rolling the logs, because the starch sticks to dry palms.

90 minColombianBreads & ParathasVeganGluten free
by KrazyBadal 0 views

Canistrelli

Every Corsican bakery, from Bastia to Bonifacio, stacks bags of canistrelli: thick, square-cut biscuits that are dry and crunchy outside and crumbly inside, made to be dipped in morning coffee. They come in many flavours, such as lemon, chestnut and almond, but anise seed is the classic. Traditionally the dough is mixed with dry white wine; most of the alcohol bakes off, but if you prefer none at all use apple juice with a squeeze of lemon, as the ingredient list says. With olive or sunflower oil instead of butter, they are vegan. Chef's tip: stop mixing as soon as the dough comes together; kneading makes them hard rather than crumbly.

40 minFrenchBakingVegan
by KrazyBadal 0 views

Schiacciata all'uva

Each September, when the grape harvest comes in, Florentine bakeries fill their windows with schiacciata all'uva, a thin, oily bread dough layered and topped with small black wine grapes and baked until the juice bubbles purple. It is sold by the slice from big trays and eaten at breakfast or as a mid-afternoon snack for just a few weeks. The traditional Canaiolo grapes have crunchy seeds, which are part of the texture; seedless black grapes work at home. The result is sticky, jammy, crisp at the edges and not too sweet. Chef's tip: squash the grapes slightly as you press them in so the juice runs into the dough and caramelises with the sugar.

145 minItalianBakingVegan
by KrazyBadal 0 views

Frustingo

In the Marche, from Ancona down to Ascoli Piceno, frustingo is the dark, dense Christmas cake every family makes its own way, born as a thrifty sweet of dried figs, nuts and stale bread. Chopped figs are soaked and simmered, then mixed with walnuts, almonds, raisins, candied peel, cocoa and coffee, and bound with sapa, the thick cooked grape must of the region. Many recipes also add mistrà, a local aniseed liqueur; this one uses ground anise seed for an alcohol-free cake. It bakes into a fudgy, almost black slab, rich with spice and not too sweet. Chef's tip: let it mature for two days in foil before cutting; it slices cleanly and the flavours come together.

90 minItalianBakingVegan
by KrazyBadal 0 views

Golfeados

Golfeados are the sticky sweet buns of Caracas bakeries and especially of the old roadside panaderías on the road to El Junquito, eaten warm with a slice of salty white cheese and a coffee. The soft yeast dough is rolled up with grated papelón (panela), anise seeds and crumbled cheese, baked in a tight tray and soaked with a dark panela syrup so they glisten. They are sweet, salty and fragrant. Chef's tip: roll them tightly and pack them close together in the tin; they rise up instead of out and stay soft and moist.

75 minVenezuelanBaking
by KrazyBadal 0 views

Picarones

Picarones are Lima's favourite street sweet, fried to order at stalls in the parks and outside churches, especially in October during the Señor de los Milagros processions. The light, chewy rings are made from a yeasted dough of sweet potato and squash, scented with anise, fried until crisp and drenched in miel de chancaca, a dark syrup of unrefined cane sugar with orange peel, cinnamon and cloves. They are eaten hot, straight from the oil, with plenty of syrup. Chancaca is sold in Latin shops; dark muscovado or piloncillo makes a very good syrup too. Chef's tip: the dough should be very soft and sticky, like a thick batter; resist adding more flour, or the picarones turn heavy and bready.

80 minPeruvianDessertsVegan
by KrazyBadal 0 views

Goes well with anise seed