Piece of life
For me, summer rhymes with Nice (France). During my childhood, we spent all our summers on the French Riviera. The beach, the countryside, the smells, the cicadas… I close my eyes, and I’m there. And as always, my memories are highly associated with food. And if we talk about Nice, my favourites are the socca [from Chez Pipo], the Pan bagnat [we used to have picnics on the beach, always with Pan bagnat] and the anise cookies.
You have no idea of the nostalgia I felt while writing these lines. This pandemic takes away a lot from us…
About the olive oil, lemon & anise cookies
For specialties from the south of France, I usually go to Carole’s website, from the blog Alter Gusto. I’ve been following her for several years, and I love her recipes. As I was looking for a cookie recipe combining olive oil, lemon and anise, I found one of her recipes, not on her blog but on the website of Cuisine et Vins de France [for the record, I have mountains of this magazine, I bought it for years]. And this recipe was perfect, exactly what I was looking for.
I followed the recipe to the letter, there was really nothing I wanted to change. I only reduced the amount of anise, 1 tablespoon seemed too much for my taste. The recipe is very easy, there is nothing technical in the preparation. To cut the cookies, you can use a cookie cutter or simply a knife.
You’ll get little dry, crumbly cookies [that’s normal], perfect for serving with a cup of coffee. They are delicious! The combination of olive oil, anise and lemon works perfectly. And the little grains of sugar on top give a wonderfully sweet crunch. I eat them with my eyes closed, and I’m on the French Riviera, so that is a win!
Olive oil, lemon & anise cookies
Équipements
- Cookie sheets
- Cookie cutter (or a knife)
Ingredients
- 200 g flour
- 1 lemon zest
- 60 ml olive oil
- 70 g sugar
- 1 egg
- 1 tsp anise seeds
- 1 pinch of salt
For the topping
- 1 tbsp sugar
Instructions
- In a bowl, mix the sugar and the egg.
- Add the lemon zest, olive oil, salt and anise. Mix together.
- Add the flour. Mix all the ingredients until you get a homogeneous dough. Form a ball, cover it with plastic wrap and let it rest in the refrigerator for at least 1 hour.
- Preheat the oven to 180°C (350°F).
- On a floured counter, roll out the dough to a thickness of about 2 to 3 mm. Cut out cookies with a cookie cutter (or a knife). Place them on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper (or a silicone mat). If you have any leftover dough, form a ball and repeat this step.
- Sprinkle the cookies with a little sugar and press lightly on their surface to coat it.
- Bake for 15 minutes, then let the cookies cool down on a rack.
