I came across this recipe a while back, but every time I looked at the ingredients I never seem to be able to get my hands on anise seed.

I seriously thought that I could grind star aniseed to make anise seed, my mother told me straight, that is not how anise see is made… hey at least I tried.

My mother went to the spice shop the other day and she came back with a packet of anise seed for me. The seed itself looks just like a fennel seed, but the seed is totally different.

To get the full flavour of the seed, I gentle crushed them.

I was also a bit scared to make this recipe as this is the first biscuit recipe that I came across that had black powder in, but it actually tastes nice with a hint of pepperish taste.

When I finally worked up the courage to try out this recipe, I forgot to buy honey but I did have 10g of honey sachets, so it was a lot of sachets to squeeze to make up the required quantity.

Ingredients:

• 6 tbsp x honey.
• 6 tbsp x castor sugar.
• ¼ x cup packed dark brown sugar.
• 60g x unsalted butter, melted.
• 1 x egg.
• 1x egg yolk.
• 2 x cups cake flour.
• ¾ x tsp bicarbonate of soda.
• ½ x tsp cinnamon powder.
• ½ x tsp cardamom powder.
• ½ x tsp anise seed.
• ½ x tsp all spice powder.
• ½ x tsp cloves powder.
• ¼ x tsp ground black powder.
• ¼ x tsp salt.
• Icing sugar, for rolling the finished baked cookies.

Method:

• In a large mixing bowl, whisk the honey, with the castor sugar and dark brown sugar.
• Whisk in the melted butter, egg and egg yolk, till everything is well combined.
• Sift in the flour, bicarbonate of soda, spices and salt.
• Mix until well blended. Keep in mind the batter will be thick.
• Using a small ice cream scoop.
• Scoop ballfulls into your hand and roll into a ball shape.
• Place on greased baking trays and pop into a pre-heated oven.
• Bake at 160 degrees for 15 – 20 minutes or until the bottoms are lightly brown.
• Cool the cookies on a cooling rack.

• Once completely cool, roll in icing sugar to coat the entire biscuit.