Sudanese Aniseed Biscuits
Shaima Ayoub

Origin. History. Influence.
Biscuit. Biscotti. Cookie. Rusk.
Anise. Aniseed. Fennel seeds?
Baked twice. Baked thrice. Four times?
Tea. Coffee. Milk. M*lk.
Celebrations. All year round.

Prep time: 10 minutes
Cooking time: approx. 35 minutes

Ingredients

3 cups flour
1 cup oil
1 cup sugar
3 eggs
2 tsp baking powder
2 tbsp aniseed
1 1/2 tsp vanilla essence
Pinch of salt

Method

1.      Preheat the oven at 180C.
2.      Combine the flour, baking powder, aniseed and salt in a bowl and put it aside.
3.      In a separate larger bowl, combine the eggs, oil, vanilla and sugar.
4.      Add the flour mixture to the egg mixture and bring everything together to create a dough. Shape the dough into a sphere and divide it into quarters.
5.      Roll each quarter out to form the shape of a log and place the four logs on to two greased baking trays.
6.      Gently press down on each of the logs until you reach a desired thickness for the biscuits. Once that’s done, put them in the oven for 20-25 minutes, to partially bake.
7.      Take the trays out and slice the logs diagonally into half an inch wide biscuits, or as desired. Flip the biscuits onto their sides and return the trays to the oven for 5 minutes, until the biscuits are golden.
8.      Take the tray out once again and flip them onto the other side and return to the oven for another 3-5 minutes, until golden.
9.      Remove the trays from the oven and set aside to cool before they are ready to eat.