Biting into a light biscuit filled with tiny pieces of fragrant, yet subtle aniseed tastes delicious; the exoticness of aniseed within a golden, oven toasted biscuit. 

I needed a tablespoon, plus a little more of this aromatic spice  to bake 40 or so ‘Biscotti all’ Anice’; a simple Sicilian biscuit.

And I followed Maria Grammatico’s great recipe in the book ‘Bitter Almonds Recollections and Recipes from a Sicilian Girlhood’ written with Mary Taylor Simeti. 

Her biscuits are filled with: eggs, plain flour, and vanilla, fine caster sugar and tiny aniseed. And, they are “made in the summertime” notes Mary Taylor Simeti in "Bitter Almonds", “since they are the ideal accompaniment to granita di limone”.

This summer when staying at The Sicilian House in Polizzi Generosa I would love to try Biscotti alla’Anice with some local lemon granita.

The recipe for Mary Grammatico’s Biscotti all’Anice can be found in this 1994 article by Nancy McKeon from The Washington Post. It is a review of the book, "Bitter Almonds".

A few photos of  the baking

Salve,

Suzanne