Italian Anisette Christmas Cookies - Vegan, Gluten-Free

Cookie season continues.


Among the blizzard of vegan Christmas cookie recipes that are blanketing the internet, I couldn't find one Anisette Cookie recipe. I can only assume (sadly) that there are not enough vegan Italians out there. Because I know I'm not the only vegan anise fanatic.

The Anisette is a soft, cakelike cookie with a touch of anise and sometimes lemon. Sprinkles are necessary to provide the contrasting tiny crunch.
Traditionally, the cookies are iced too. I have yet to find a white cookie glaze that does not use powdered sugar, so I opted to forgo the icing and just top with sprinkles before baking.


I used two brands of sprinkles, one a generic holiday nonpareil mix and the other a vegan, naturally colored jimmy mix. 

Yes, the scents of candy cane and fresh evergreen will always carry that holiday spirit, but it can be easily overdone. Change it up by making your home smell warm like an Italian bakery on Christmas Eve.


Gluten-Free Vegan Italian Anisette Christmas Cookies
Yields about 20 cookies

Gluten-Free flour blend:

• 1 cup sorghum flour
• 1/2 cup sweet rice flour
• 1/2 cup quinoa flour
• 1/2 cup tapioca starch
• 1/2 cup arrowroot
• 2 teaspoons xanthan gum

OR 3 cups white wheat flour (for non-gluten-free)

1 tablespoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon sea salt

3/4 cup baking oil (I used light olive oil)
2/3 cup light agave nectar
1/3 cup unsweetened applesauce
1 teaspoon anise extract
1 teaspoon lemon extract
Sprinkles

Heat oven to 350F. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper or a Silpat.

In a medium bowl, mix the flour blend (or white wheat flour), baking powder, and salt. Set aside.

In a large bowl, thoroughly combine the oil, agave, applesauce, anise extract, and lemon extract. Add dry ingredients into wet and mix well until an even dough/batter is formed. Using a round tablespoon, drop cookies onto baking sheet. (Cookies will not spread, so they can fit in close together.) Pour sprinkles on top. (If they do not stick, dip a finger in water and wet the top of cookies before pouring on sprinkles.) Bake for 8-10 minutes, or until cookie bottoms are slightly golden. Remove from sheet and let cool.

Apricot Anise Cookies ... Plus Eating My Way Through Berkeley

I've completed my internship at Millennium Restaurant and now I have a whole week to explore the Bay Area before heading back home. And by explore, I most definitely mean eat my way through. I got very used to sitting down to a gourmet vegan dinner every night, now I'm attempting to fill the Chocolate-Almond-Midnight-shaped hole in my heart.

Today I hit up Berkeley. It may not seem like a lot of food, but this was a lot of sugar, all within 6 hours, plus my body was still used to the internship eating schedule of a small fruit breakfast that lasted me until dinner nine hours later. 

First stop, breakfast at the Nabolom Bakery.
Day-old scones were 40% off, and I swear it tasted like it was an August.

 Vegan Apple Pecan Scone

And a fresh brownie, they gave me an end piece. That's love.

Gluten Free Vegan Gooey Brownie

Now for a pick me up from Razan's Organic Kitchen. Not the most informative picture, you'll have to trust me on this one.

Banana Blueberry Soy Smoothie

Lunchtime at Saturn Cafe. This is the place I want to bring my friends, because it's affordable, a good balance of indulgent and healthy, and damn cute. Glitter and comic book strips galore.

Vegan Nachos - This was a half-order!

 

Vegan cupcakes, too full to order one this time around, but they sure looked fine.

Had to take digestion break. Berkeley knows how to organize their bookstores, everything for the tortured-lovesick soul in one corner.

Pick me up No. 2: Latte. I did a thorough Google Street View check and still cannot figure out where I stopped for coffee. Can't find a receipt either. It was corner somewhere?
EDIT: Found it walking around the next day, turns out it belongs to Berkeley Espresso.

I thought I was done for the day until I came across C.R.E.A.M., which had vegan chipwiches! Probably not the best idea, should have just gone for the ice cream, the cookies were enormous. Who am I kidding, it was a great. They warmed the cookies up first which made for the fastest, messiest treat ever.

Not pictured: the long line of people that went out the door

Cherry between banana walnut chocolate chip = a meal

After a day of sugar and caffeine, I'm actually a bit more stable that I would have imagined. Still a bit wired though. And this is just Monday. Tomorrow's a chocolate-factory tour, plus my new obsession: tamales!
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Because I can't expect you to read a post unless it has a great recipe, and because I can't go on spilling all of Millennium's secrets, here's a recipe for Apricot Anise cookies that are loosely based off of a recipe I created for them.

Apricot Anise Cookies

1 cup vegetable oil, preferably grapeseed or safflower
1 1/2 cup brown sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon anise
3/4 cup diced dried apricot

Preheat oven to 350F. Lightly grease or line two baking sheets.

With a mixer, cream the oil, sugar, and vanilla. In a separate bowl, whisk together the flours, salt, and anise. Slowly add the dry ingredients into the mixer until well incorporated. Fold in apricot pieces.

Using a tablespoon, drop dough about 2 inches apart on baking sheet. Bake for 5-7 minutes, until slightly golden.