The recipe handed down to me is:

5 large or 6 medium eggs – leave out until at room temperature
1 pound powdered sugar- sifted (you can buy one pound boxes)
2 drops Anise oil ( in my experience very hard to find oil and I use extract a lot. Basically use to
enough drops to achieve desired taste- and it can be as much as 15 drops)
3 cups of flour- sifted

Directions:
Beat eggs 10-15 minutes, or until thick ( I usually beat closer to 1/2 hour)
Add sugar (sifted) slowly, approximately 2 tablespoons at a time
Add Anise and mix
Add flour slowly (also sifted)
**** I have tried adding 1/2- 1tsp of baking powder- sifted with the flour at times to make sure they rise (get their feet) – but this was not in my grandmother’s recipe.
Spoon onto greased cookie sheet ( I use Parchment paper instead)
Let stand overnight

Bake at 300-310 degrees F 8-10 minutes
I usually take them out when the “feet” look just slightly brown–this enables them to peel off the
parchment paper cleanly ( when they are in the oven I pick up the parchment paper to look at the browning of the feet and that is how I know when to take them out of the oven.
Let cool and peel off the parchment paper.

Now yes, I call the top the cap or hat and the bottom , if they rise appropriately, – the feet

Without the cap or the feet both myself and my family ( they won’t say it) think it’s a failure
They taste fine as failures but just aren’t as good as when the come out cleanly , as above.

I notice that in other recipes that the the instructions are to beat the sugar and eggs for 30 mins , whereas mine calls for just beating the eggs for that amount of time. I might try that instead.

I do think the aeration of the sugar to eggs is important as well as the eggs/sugar to flour ratio. And maybe the weather, as you say.

Also, I used my mother’s mixer (it’s 57 years old) and it wasn’t working very well this year!! It wouldn’t beat the eggs well. So that could be an issue too.

Thank you for your reply

Sally Vetter

I use granulated sugar and 4 eggs. My recipe calls for beating the batter for a whole half hour. My understanding was the amount of air in the mixture also contributes to the “frosting” or cap, as you call it.

I hope some of this info might be of help.

Did you happen to follow the link to my blog on “Making Anise Cookies?” Perhaps there might be some other help there for you. Keep trying.

When you see success, it will be so worth the effort. I remember when I learned how to make angel food cake from scratch. I tried over and over. Now it is an “old favorite,” rather than an “old failure.”

Merry Christmas to you, too. It is a wonderful time of year.

I too have made Anise cookies for years from a very similar recipe and passed down from my German grandparents.

Lately I’ve been failing ( no caps, or hats we call them)
I am in Houston and it has been muggy and raining. I keep thinking I need to adjust the flour to sugar ratio. However, that hasn’t changed and often times they’re perfect.

My recipe calls for 5 eggs, 1 pound of powdered sugar and 3 cups of flour. And the anise, of course.

So I was wondering if you had insight into reasons for failures other than weather ?

Thank you and Merry Christmas!