BISCOCHITOS

Steps:

• 1. Preheat oven to 350°
• 2. Sift together flour, baking powder, salt, and cinnamon and set aside. Note about the flour: I can only get Arrowhead Mills pastry flour in my small town, and I've never tried this cookie with anything else. The texture is exceptional in this recipe, and a lot about biscochitos is the texture. I would recommend it over all-purpose flour. Note for the cinnamon: Most traditional biscochito recipes don't put cinnamon IN the cookie, but dust it on the top with the sugar.
• 3. Cream lard, butter, and sugar together.
• 4. Stir in egg, anise, vanilla, and cognac. Brandy or orange juice are good substitutes for the cognac.
• 5. Stir in dry ingredients to butter and liquids mixture.
• 6. Roll out on a floured surface to 1/4-inch and cut out cookies. My preferred cookie cutter for these has an open top. I press the cutter into the dough and sprinkle the coarse sugar (regular granulated sugar works fine, too) into the top and shake around. Empty the loose sugar out, then push the dough out onto the baking sheet.
• 7. For small cookies, bake for about 10 minutes until the edges just barely start to turn light brown. I use air insulated cookie sheets, so there might need to be an adjustment for regular cookie sheets.