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Two facts:

1. I LOVE good, flakey, moist, buttery shortbread.
2. I don’t LOVE anise (often associated with black licorice) but I’m challenging myself to find favorable ways to use flavors I don’t typically favor.

The combination of facts 1 and 2 made some of the most delicious cookies, ever… pair these with some Darjeeling or Irish Breakfast tea and you have a seriously tasty afternoon retreat.

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Ingredients:

• 1-1/3 cup all purpose, unbleached flour
• ¼ teaspoon kosher salt
• ½ cup white rice
• 6 Tablespoons salted butter
• 6 Tablespoons unsalted butter
• 1/3 cup Baker’s (superfine) sugar, plus more for dusting
• ½ teaspoon Anise flavoring
• ¼ cup dried tart cherries

 

Preheat your oven to 325°.

Beat the butter and sugar

until it’s pale and creamy

add the anise and beat again.

 

Put your rice in a blender or food processor

and pulverize it until it’s quite fine.

And we still need to sift it.

The rice doesn’t cook to a soft texture, so if you don’t get the large clumps of rice out you’ll swear your teeth are going to break. That does not make for an enjoyable cookie.

You can test to make sure it’s fine enough by chewing a little bit. It should “pop” as you chew but not resemble eating a rock.

 

Mix your flour, ground rice, and salt in a bowl

Chop your cherries

and add them to the dry ingredients.

Coat them well in the flour mixture

and add the cherries and flour to the creamed butter and sugar. Stop as soon as it’s combined.

Switch to hand stirring

and then palm it together to make a ball.

You can spread it into a greased 9” flat circle on a cookie sheet, or I use an 8” cake pan.

Flatten it down as best you can

and then switch to a rolling pin or the back of a flat metal cup to smooth the top.

Poke holes in whatever design you like (this is the only way to prevent the shortbread from rising and bubbling so don’t skip this.)

Slice into 12 servings

and bake for 35 minutes, until it’s a golden pale and the edges are just starting to brown.

as soon as it comes out of the oven, sprinkle the top with more fine sugar

wait for five minutes and re-cut your slices.

Let it cool completely.

Gently lift them onto a serving platter.*

These are seriously SO good. The anise is definitely not overpowering but you can detect it and it balances like a trapeze artist with the cherries. Yum. Black jelly beans, here I come…

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*To remove your shortbread from a deep cake pan as I have used, I place a small piece of cardboard on top of the shortbread, turn them upside down (fully supported on the cardboard), place a plate over them while they’re still upside down and then invert, right-side up.