Bizcochitos

Bizcochitos are NewMexican Christmas Cookies or rather ccokies developed by Spanish residents of New Mexico,US.These are butter cookies traditionally anise and cinnamon flavoured and mde during religious holidays especially Christmas.There is no official recipe for this and recipe varies from region to region.The basic recipe for these cookies can be classified into two-Southern New Mexican and Northern New Mexican.I have followed here the latter from Wiki cookbook with my own adjustments-halving the recipe and replacing eggs with soymilk and little oil.

Ingredients:

All Purpose Flour:3/4 cup
Unsalted Butter:1/2 stick softened
BakingPowder: 1/2 tsp
Soymilk:1tbsp
Vegetable Oil: 1 tsp
Cinnamon Powder: a pinch
Anise Seeds: 1 tbsp or more

Topping:

Cinnamon+ sugar

Preparation:

Cream together butter and sugar in a big bowl until mixed well.Add soymilk and oil.blend.Add the rest of ingredients-flour+baking powder+cinnamon.Finally add in anise and blend well to obtain a cream coloured smooth soft dough.

Mix together sugar and cinnamon in a small plate.

Roll out the dough to 1/4 inch thick rectangle.Cut the shapes using cookie cutters or pinch small pieces and form into desired shape.Put oneside of the cookie into cinnamon sugar mix and place on a ungreased baking sheet 1-2 inches apart and the dipped side up.

Bake for 5-8 minutes until the sides are lightly browned.Cool and serve.

The cookies look very plain on the outside,but are crisp and crunchy.The anise seeds when bitten into leaves a refreshing flavour.I actually thought that since they had cinnamon and were topped with cinnamon sugar they would be cinnamony(my favourite spice) in taste but they are anise tasting.

I have replaced the single eggyolk or half of it as I halved the recipe, with soymilk and oil.The original recipe after halving had 1/2 tbsp of milk.You can use tofu in this as well,but I wanted to see whether soy milk works and also for making it moist,I added oil.I halved the recipe as I was not sure how the replacements will work and it was just an experiment.Still these estimates yield around 15-18 medium sized cookies.

Anise is used in a variety of confectionaries all over the world.It has medicinal properties as well and is a bit similar to Fennel seeds used in Indian cooking.

Bizcochito is officially the state cookie of New Mexico and despite its Spanish name,traditionally American.These crunchy anise cookies are going to Think Spice:Think Anise,a spicy event started by Sunita and currently hosted at BakingHistory.Also warm cookies fresh from the oven are travelling to A.W.E.D - American hosted by dearest DK.The warm Christmassy cookies travel to Susan of FoodBlogga where she is in search of ChristmasCookies.

Munching on bizcochitos on Recipe Marathon Day#20,lets race to fellow runners kitchen:

1) DK 2) Srivalli 3) Ranji 4)PJ 5)Medha 6)Priya 7)Bhawna 8)Raaji 9)Ruchii 10)Anu 11)Kamala 12)Roopa 13)Divya Kudua 14)Rekha 15)Divya M 16)Lakshmi 17)Raaga 18)LakshmiVenkatesh 19) Sripriya 20)Viji 21)Kamalika 22)Pavani 23)Karuna 24)Roochi