Springerle (German Christmas biscuits)

Makes 32. 10 steps

2 large eggs		beat 10 min	Roll 2cm thick, then roll once with a patterned rolling pin to make 1cm thick biscuits. Cut into squares.	Bake in slow oven 25 minutes or until puffed and golden at the base. The top should remain white.
225g caster sugar		beat in 10 min
1 teaspoon lemon juice		mix in
320g plain flour	sift	gradually beat in, mix to a smooth dough Refrigerate 1 hour.
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
2 tablespoons anise seeds	sprinkle on clean dry tea-towel		Place biscuits on anise. Leave overnight, uncovered

By leaving the biscuits overnight, a thin layer on top of the biscuit hardens, and so the pattern doesn't sag while baking. This results in a biscuit with a thin fine white top surface and a large-crumb interior.

This recipe calls for anise (Pimpinella anisum) which is not the same as star anise (Illicium verum), as I learned after my first attempt at making these. Nonetheless, ground-up star anise sprinkled over a tea-towel works very well.

These biscuits are soft directly out of the oven, then they slowly go hard. Kept in an airtight container, they were good for about four weeks, after which they were too hard to eat. You can resoften them by putting a slice of apple in the container for three days. Any biscuit in contact with the apple will become very mushy, and the others will become nicely soft.