Satisfying a taste Aniseed Biscotti
The other day, a food-in friend was sharing with me the pleasures of eating Guyanese-style Aniseed Biscuits. I have to confess that my memory of the biscuit was not as vivid as his; I vaguely remember large, brown, flat biscuits with crinkled edges. The biscuits were hard and crisp, and they were often broken into pieces when given to us as children.
All the talk about aniseed biscuit and aniseed bread with Pepperpot had us both craving aniseed biscuits. We set out to find a recipe. I checked a couple of church booklets with recipes that I have as well as the internet, and he contacted five of his friends spread across the globe that might have a recipe. We had no luck. I did find a recipe that called for equal parts (by weight) of flour and sugar along with an egg and aniseed. The instructions said, “Beat the egg, flour and sugar to death and bake in a hot oven.” I couldn’t help being amused. You can’t get much more direct instructions than those.
The other thing I found out is that there are lots of other countries that have some type of aniseed biscuit, the most popular being made very much like that of a biscotti – the twice-baked Italian cookie/biscuit.
Using my basic biscotti recipe, I added aniseed and it satisfied my craving for the taste of aniseed biscuit. I am not sure if my friend will make the aniseed biscotti because he says that he does not like biscotti. I shared mine with two Guyanese friends living here in Barbados. When I opened the glass jar in which the biscuits were stored, the whiff of aniseed transported them back to a place and time of their childhood in Guyana.
If you have a recipe for the Guyanese-style aniseed biscuit and you are willing to share it with Tastes Like Home, please inbox me: Cynthia@tasteslikehome.org
My food-in friend prefers to have his Aniseed Biscuit with only milk. Yes, he is one of those fussy people who declare that only certain things should be served in combination with others. Listen, you eat these with a hot drink of your choice.
Aniseed Biscotti
Yield:
24 pieces