A spongy, vanilla cake drenched in a mix of evaporated milk, condensed milk, heavy cream and a splash (or more) of rum takes the term “triple threat” to a whole new level. Topped with homemade whipped cream and fresh fruit, this cake is something you can whip up, literally, for a get together or holiday that will leave the crowd asking for thirds.

Tres Leches, or three milk cake, is a very popular dessert in Latin America. Where this cake originated is a sticky subject. Since it is so delicious, and has been adapted to include classic flavorings from differing countries in South America, many people take pride in saying their country came up with it first. Though some may squabble about which version is most authentic, there is no argument when it comes to its importance at the table as a sweet indulgence to end any meal.

Although it is not known for being a traditional postre, or dessert, in Venezuela, I make it every year for the holidays. Why is that? Because it is ridiculously delicious, easy to make, and has rum. What more could you ask for?

So when I was in my teens my mom thought we should try making Tres Leches. By “we” she meant “me,” and since it was one of my favorite cakes I took the challenge. At that time, I only had a whisk for the job. Mami told me that the traditional way of making it made it taste better, so during those first few tries the cake took a bit more effort and time than it does now. Today, I can thank Tres Leches (and my mom) for giving me toned arms and a deep appreciation for electric mixers. As the years passed I catered the recipe to my family’s tastes, adding cinnamon, an extra splash or two of rum and a touch of almond extract for an added twist.

The beauty of this recipe is that you can’t go wrong. The steps are easy to follow, the ingredients, for the most part, are already part of your pantry’s arsenal and anything that is saturated with this much milky goodness always gets raves reviews. It is the perfect opportunity for you to take a recipe, add your own secret ingredient and make it your own. It is time to bring a new desert to the table this season, so take out your mixer, put on that apron and count your eggs to make this cake because sugar, milk never tasted so good.

Buen Provecho!

Torta Tres Leches

Cake
6 large eggs, separated
2 cups granulated sugar
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 cup whole milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
¼ teaspoon almond extract – secret ingredient

Milk Topping
1 14-ounce can evaporated milk
1 14-ounce can sweetened condensed milk
1 cup heavy cream
¼ cup preferred rum (or more)

Whipped Topping
Remaining heavy cream (from 1 liter carton)
3 tablespoons of sugar
½ teaspoon vanilla extract

Add Ons
Fresh berries or assorted fruit.

Guide

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Prepare a 9 by 13-inch pan and set aside.
Tip: An aluminum pan is easier. Grease the pan and add a few spoonfuls of flour. Lightly tap and shake the pan to lightly coat. Turn pan over sink and lightly tap to remove excess flour.

2. In a bowl, beat egg whites on low speed until soft peaks form. Slowly add sugar until stiff peaks form. Incorporate yolks into mixture, one at a time, until completely integrated.

3. Sift, or thoroughly mix, the flour and baking powder.

4. Add dry ingredients to the egg mixture, alternating with milk.

Tip: Do this step quickly to keep your cake batter fluffy and airy. Do not over mix.

5. Add vanilla and cinnamon. Stir batter once or twice to incorporate. Pour cake into prepared pan and bake until golden.
Tip: An aluminum pan will take 25- 35 minutes for the cake to be done. Add 10-15 minutes if baking in stoneware. Cake is cooked through when a toothpick is inserted into the center, removed, and remains dry.

6. In a bowl combine the evaporated milk, condensed milk, heavy cream and rum.
Tip: This step can be done in advance, while the cake is baking in the oven. It can also be chilled along with the cake overnight.

7. Remove cake from oven. With a fork, or skewer, poke holes into cake. Pour milk topping over cake while it is still warm from the oven.
Tip: This part is fun for the kids. You can’t have too many holes, just make sure the surface of the cake remains level.

8. Let cake sit and cool to room temperature. Cover and refrigerate until chilled.
Tip: Cooling should take a few hours, or can be left overnight in the fridge.

9. Combine the remaining heavy cream, vanilla and cinnamon in a bowl. Using a mixer, whip heavy cream until peaks form.
Tip: The peaks should hold their shape enough to use a pastry bag with assorted tips if desired. Do not over whip, or you will end up with sweet butter instead of sweet whipped cream.

10. Once the cake is completely chilled, top with homemade whipped cream and berries.

And finally, admire, eat and enjoy!

Sounds good doesn’t it!? This month’s recipe from BakingBar is Strawberry Fool. The ‘Fool’ in various guises of different fruits has been around in Britain since the mid 17th Century. Just a wee bit of history for you there too.

For those of you lucky enough to live on the emerald isle of Ireland you will know only too well that our summers are somewhat lacking in warmth and dryness so what better way to brighten up your day than with this low-fat alternative of a traditional English dessert.  This versatile dessert makes an excellent breakfast, brunch, lunch or even snack.

Once you taste a Strawberry Fool you’ll understand why it has always been such a prevalent English dessert and with this variation you won’t need to feel guilty about piling on any extra pounds.

Why not prepare this the night before for a grab-and-go snack the next day? If you have kids who have a sweet tooth, this strawberry fool added into their lunchbox will likely fool them into thinking it is one of the sugar packed yoghurts which are so often found on our supermarket shelves.

The Ingredients:

• 450g Pot of Greek Yoghurt or Natural Yoghurt
• 220g Fresh Strawberries
• 2tbsp Honey
• 3tsp Fresh Lemon Juice
• 1 Crushed Digestive Biscuit or similar biscuit

The How-To:

• Wash and cut your strawberries, removing the stalk.
• Crush these in a glass bowl using a fork or potato masher. Break them up as much as possible to release the juices.
• Add the 2tbsp of honey to the strawberries, stir and set to the side for about 20 mins.
• While you are waiting pour the Greek or natural yoghurt into another bowl and beat in the lemon juice until the yoghurt is smooth.
• In a small glass beaker (or even a cocktail glass works well) spoon 2tbsp of the strawberries into the bottom of the glass, followed by 2tbsp of the yoghurt and repeat until the glass is sufficiently full.
• Sprinkle with a little crushed biscuit and you’re ready to serve!

You will be able to make 3 or 4 desserts with this recipe depending on the size of the glass you use. Store in the fridge until you are ready to eat.

You’re Done!

Remember to stop by our website http://www.bakingbar.co.uk for lots more recipes.

Dear Food Television Programming,

I want to believe you have America’s best interests at heart.  Perhaps your shows really do intend to inspire people to step back into the kitchen for something other than a bag of cheesy crisps and a fizzy soda (only on a commercial break, of course). Should you truly wish to counter America’s growing waistline and reliance on food that has a cartoon as a spokesperson, I have a few minor tweaks that might make your programming more accessible to the typical American.

• Please stop hiring women who have the real-size measurements of Barbie™ and flash cleavage like they’re expecting dollar bills to transport through the TV screen.  I have trouble placing faith in the recipes of a lady who looks like she hasn’t had a meal since 1995. The junk in my trunk wants to feel free to eat that pancetta and parmesan pasta, not just cook it.
• 30-minute dinner shows, while well intentioned, seem to exclude some crucial elements of food preparation. I’m not sure about the rest of America, but my kitchen doesn’t include magic elves who pre-chop all the ingredients in colorful, little bowls, and *definitely* doesn’t include someone who whisks away the (approx.) 15 pots and pans you dirty throughout the cooking process.
• What’s with all the shows that star a guy just this side of chunky eating copious amounts of greasy foods with gusto? Why aren’t these hosts ever traveling to find the world’s “greenest” eateries? Or throwing down a big bunch of farm fresh carrots? You know what I’d like to see? I’d like to see that guy challenged to a kale eating contest.  Let’s see how you handle some fiber there, big boy.

• No more catch-phrases. When I see people exclaiming things like “pow”, or “wham” or “isn’t that beautiful/easy/delicious”, it doesn’t remind me of a kitchen. It reminds me of a 2nd grade classroom. You want to hear some words that fly around my kitchen, try s*#@, d@*$, or “ouch”.
• Fancy pastry doughs and dessert crusts should not be portrayed as if they take 20 minutes and nary a drop of sweat. For many of us, rolling out a pie crust or stretching a strudel involves tears, fire and, possibly, bloodshed. At the very least, a few swear words. Get real.
• Those shows where the chef tells about how easy it is to prepare a fresh meal for the family “every night of the week!” better include at least one option that involves ripping open a box and inserting it in a microwave or a rotisserie chicken from Whole Foods.  Just sayin’.

• A brief word on set design. My kitchen looks like a category 5 hurricane just blew through by the time I finish cooking a meal. When your TV kitchens are a pristine white with curtains and placemats that match the chef’s cocktail, I don’t think, “well, this is something to aspire to”. I think, “pass me that bottle, sister.”
• Where do you come up with the “story” behind some of these meal plans? I have never, ever hosted an outdoor movie festival in my backyard for which I needed a menu. Not only do I not have my own movie screen and projector, but I don’t even have a BACKYARD. In the same category, the “a special menu for a special guest” episodes where, say, Gwyneth Paltrow or Jennifer Garner, stops by are ridiculous. I’m lucky to get a match.com date to my house for dinner. I’m not looking for star-quality-dining options. I’m looking for no-one-goes-home-with-food-poisoning-dining options.

If you want to really to get a true sense of my American kitchen, look to your competition reality shows.People racing to beat the clock, sweat pouring down their faces, ingredients running out rapidly, forgetting the next step in a recipe, curses and screaming occasionally slipping out.  *That’s* my kitchen. Throw in a kid crying, my dog projectile vomiting, or work calling with an emergency, and you’ll have a true sense of a real-life kitchen at dinner time. Perhaps then, you’ll consider your next big show: “One-Pot, 20-minute, Vegetarian/Carnivore/Omnivore/Vegan/Gluten-Free/Dairy-Free Meals for the Whole Family Made in a Dirty Kitchen by a Woman Who is Lucky if Her Clothes Are Clean.”

Good Luck.

Melissa

Recipe
These scones are SO easy. Honestly. I don’t think they’d ever show them on any food channel, because producers would fear viewers would learn how simple cooking can be. No fancy equipment is needed, but as you can see in the pictures above, I love my cherry pitter. Truly, I own no kitchen gadgets except this pitter. (I don’t even own a real food processor.) It’s extremely fast and handy and saves almost all of the fruit. Otherwise, you will just need a large bowl, a few knives, a wooden spoon and a cookie sheet for this recipe. That’s it!

I created these scones to utilize cherries, which are now appearing everywhere at the markets here. You could also substitute 1 cup of frozen cherries if that’s not the case in your neck of the woods. Tart cherries and oozy dark chocolate- what father wouldn’t devour these for his Father’s Day breakfast (lunch, dinner, snack, dessert)?

Dark Chocolate Cherry Scones with Mascarpone Chocolate Glaze
Makes 8 scones

Ingredients
Scones:
2 cups flour (I used 1 cup unbleached white flour and 1 cup whole wheat flour.)
1/3 cup sugar
1/4 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 cup unsalted butter, cut into cubes (keep the butter very cold until ready to use)
1 egg, slightly beaten
1/4 cup milk (none of that non-fat stuff)
1 cup dark/bittersweet chocolate chunks, chopped if not already in pieces
1 1/4 cup pitted cherries (if large, you may want to slice in half)

Glaze:
1 oz. unsweetened chocolate
1-2 tbsp heavy cream (depending on consistency)
1 1/2 tbsp mascarpone cheese
3/4 cup-1 cup powdered sugar (depending on consistency)
1 tsp vanilla extract

1. Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper if desired. Otherwise, leave it ungreased.
2. Stir flour(s), sugar, baking soda, and cinnamon in a large bowl.
3. Add butter. Cut into the flour mixture with two dinner knives until the butter begins to look incorporated and pea-sized. I usually just criss-cross the knives in X-shaped patterns in various directions across the bowl to accomplish this. (If you want to use gadgets, a pastry cutter, pastry blender or food processor can help.)
4. Add egg and milk, mixing gently with a wooden spoon. Delicately fold in chocolate chunks and cherries. (I used my hands a little at this point to gently make sure everything was incorporated. Don’t use them too much though or you will overwarm the butter.)
5. Sprinkle some flour on a flat surface and spread it out. Put the dough on the floured surface and turn once to flour both sides. Gently shape into a disc that is round and about 1-inch thick. (About the circumference of a medium pizza.) These don’t rise much, so the thickness will just look right to you. Using a sharp knife, cut the dough into 8 wedges.
6. Place on a cookie sheet and bake until golden. 14-17 minutes. Allow to cool slightly.

For the glaze:
1. Melt chocolate over medium-low heat in a sauce pan with 1 tbsp of the cream, stirring constantly. Add the mascarpone cheese and vanilla. Turn off heat.
2. Slowly stir or whisk in powdered sugar until a thick glaze consistency is reached. (If you over thicken, just add more cream.)
3. Drizzle over slightly cooled scones and serve. Delicious warm!

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Amelia Cafe, chocolate truffle cake

My little, delicious, chocolate truffle cake at my favorite dessert/cafe, Amelia Cafe, Brightleaf Square, Downtown Durham.

Delicious little mini cupcakes from Two Little Red Hens Bakery in NYC.

Baklava has many traditions and variations. This Turkish Baklava is definitely a delight. If you want to see another version, try Lena’s traditional Arabic baklava, which uses less syrup and more nuts than the Greek, Turkish, and Persian versions.

Baklava is one of those foods that is made in so many local variations in so many different countries, that it’s difficult to trace its true origin. The word “baklava” itself is a Turkish word used to describe a diamond or rhombus-shaped object and indeed the most commonly believed origin of this delicious dessert is in fact Turkish. That being said, baklava can be found in various wonderful forms in the entire former Ottoman Empire region as well as central and southwest Asia.

Baklava is a rich and sweet delight and while there are endless ways to prepare it, our recipe features layer upon layer of flaky phyllo dough filled with chopped pistachio spiced with cinnamon and sweetened with syrup. Although it’s slightly labor intensive, it’s well worth it. We hope you enjoy it as much as we did!

- 1 lb box of phyllo dough, defrosted
- 1 cup of butter (or 2 sticks), melted
- 1 cup of pistachios, unsalted
- 1/3 cup of heavy cream
- 1 tbsp cinnamon
- 1 cup of water
- 1 cup of sugar
- 1 tbsp of lemon juice

In a food processor, pulse the pistachios until they are small pebble sized. You can also do this in a plastic ziplock bag and smash them with a mallet. Mix in the tablespoon of cinnamon.

Cut the sheets of phyllo dough in half, if not cut in half already. They should be cut so they fit perfectly in a baking dish. I’ve used a 3 liter Pyrex dish here but you can use whatever you have. Brush the bottom and sides of your pan with some melted butter and lay two sheets of phyllo dough in. Brush this layer and continue to butter and layer 2 sheets at time. When you’ve used up half the dough, brush the top most layer with more butter and pour the cream over the layer. Sprinkle the pistachio mixture in an even layer. Continue to layer the phyllo two sheets at a time, brushing butter between them. Don’t forget to brush the last layer with butter. Using a really sharp knife cut into squares, but be careful to cut only to the pistachio layer and not all the way down to the bottom of the dish.

Place the pan on the middle rack in a preheated 375 oven. Bake for about 25 minutes and lower the heat to 325. Bake for another 25 minutes. Take it out and leave it at room temperature for 10 minutes.

While the baklava is baking, boil water, sugar and lemon together until syrupy. After the baklava has cooled pour the syrup in the cuts. I don’t prefer wet baklava so this helps to keep the top layer nice and crunchy.

Resist the temptation and let the baklava soak for at least 4 hours with a large sheet of foil tented over it. This will allow the syrup to soak into the baklava.

And there you have it! Enjoy!

Lemon meringue, buttercream chocolate cupcake, mulled cider. Ah.

I have this romantic notion of myself as some sort of a wayfarer who floats along effortlessly from town to town, bringing only myself and the essentials—like a yoga mat, Nalgene water bottle and samurai sword. But the reality is that I’m more like a crazy lady who brings random stuff, including papers—A LOT of papers of all sizes, from post-its to flipchart paper all scribbled in what appears to be Sanskrit.

An example of my random stuff: A balance ball, Peruvian wall hanging, envelopes and, oh, yes, flipchart paper.

This is how I move from place to place.

Now that I have found myself in the southwest again after a stint on the East Coast, Midwest and West Coast, I’m finally settling in to a space that I can call my own. Well, at least for a little while anyway. And for a moment, the rush and madness of moving, unpacking, furniture-buying and settling in have stilled.

Beautiful stillness at the Grand Canyon

So I decided to take advantage of this moment by de-flowering my new kitchen with a baking spree. Mind you, I’m not a baker (or a candlestick maker, sorry I couldn’t resist the rhyme). But I do love to eat baked treats and find a sense of inner peace in making them. Oh, who am I kidding? It’s actually very stressful for me to bake—I constantly worry about things like making sure all the ingredients are in and in the exact amount, mixing versus folding, and I often find myself substituting ingredients, which my fiancée loathes. “But it’s healthier to use applesauce instead of butter,” I tell him, while he shakes his head and then punishes my effort to keep him heart-attack free by not touching the vegan-flourless-carob-wheatgrass-cardboard cake I’ve presented to him.

The Quaker Oatmeal man! This box reminds me of my childhood.

Yes, there are many debates on what is healthy and what is not, and loads of opinions on what tastes good and what doesn’t. Personally, I love my family’s alternative recipes that call for things like quinoa or sesame flour, agave nectar or maple syrup and applesauces and veggie purees in lieu of butter. But every once in a while, like my dear Buttah-man, I like something made just the way the recipe calls for it—butter, white flour, sugar and all—such as found in oatmeal cookies.

Mixing together the Crumbs version dough

There is something really comforting about a good oatmeal cookie, not to mention you kinda feel a teensy bit healthier by eating one. However, I could not decide just which oatmeal cookie to make. So I opted to try three different versions and to let the old Buttah-head be the judge of which cookie he preferred. Would it be the Crumbs version, perfected by Mia Bauer and her New York-originated bakery specializing in cupcakes? Would it be the Jessica Seinfeld Double Delicious cookbook version—a healthier alternative? Or the Quaker Oats recipe I remember from my childhood?

Quaker Oats version dough--wonderful and classic

After a couple hours of mixing AND folding, a few mistakes like making huge batches or adding too much salt since I’m terrible at eyeballing, I cranked out batch after batch on my two little cookie sheets.

Double Delicious version ready for the oven

What resulted was a taste test battle. (Drum roll please). All three versions were yummy, but Buttah-beard loved the Crumbs version and I loved the Double Delicious version: The Crumbs cookie is buttery and has a nice crunch to it, but can be somewhat soft at the center, making it perfect for butter-loving cookie enthusiasts. For me, the healthier alternative cookie was tastier, not because it was healthier with only 5 grams of fat per cookie, but because it was moist. And of course, because it involved chocolate chips. The moisture is due to the puree—Jessica’s recipe called for a sweet potato puree, but since I had pumpkin puree available, I used that, and it was awesome!

Crumbs oatmeal cookies: Big and buttery

Double Delicious/JS cookie: Moist, chocolatey and lowfat

Quaker Oats Vanishing cookies: A tasty, salty crunch and childhood favorite

Butter or not, if you are battling different versions of your favorite cookie, we’d love to hear about it! Which one did you pick and why? And by the way, Happy New Year! Wishing you much butter (in moderation), buttah and health in the New Year!

All three versions ready for eating. Mmmmmm!

Crumbs Oatmeal Cookie (Rise and Shine Oatmeal Cookies—by Mia Bauer, Crumbs Bake Shop in a Box, The Recipe Studio Publishers, 2008)

Ingredients:

3 cups of oats
1 ¼ cups flour
1 ½ tsp baking soda
¼ tsp kosher salt
¾ cup butter (room temp)
1 cup brown sugar
¾ cup sugar
1 egg
¼ cup milk
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup raisins

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F
2. Grease cookie sheets
3. Mix oats, flour, baking soda and salt in a bowl
4. Cream butter, white and brown sugar, eggs, milk and vanilla in mixer
5. Fold in dry ingredients and raisins gently
6. Using a spoon or ice cream scoop, drop mixture onto cookie sheet
7. Bake for 14-15 minutes
8. Remove and cool

Double Delicious (Jessica Seinfeld version, slightly modified—Double Delicious: Good, simple food for busy, complicated lives, William Morrow Publishers, 2010)

Ingredients:

1 ½ cups oats
1 cup white flour or whole wheat pastry flour
½ cup raisins
½ tsp baking powder
1 tsp ground cinnamon
½ tsp nutmeg
¼ tsp salt
6 tbsp canola oil
½ up light brown sugar
½ cup pumpkin puree
2 large egg whites
2 tsp vanilla extract
1/3 cup of semi-sweet or bittersweet chocolates

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Coat baking sheets with cooking spray
2. Mix oats, flour, raisins, baking powder, cinnamon, nutmeg and salt
3. In another bowl, using a wooden spoon, mix oil into the brown sugar until well combined. Mix in the pumpkin puree, egg whites and vanilla. Add chocolate chips.
4. Add the flour mixture in, stir until a thick dough forms. Drop the dough by tablespoonful onto the cookie sheets
5. Bake the cookies until brown around the edges or for about 12-15 minutes

Quaker Oats recipe (Vanishing Oatmeal Raising Cookies—taken right off the box top)

Ingredients:

½ cup (1 stick) butter, softened
¾ cup brown sugar
½ cup granulated sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
1 ½ cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp ground cinnamon
½ tsp salt (optional)
3 cups Quaker Oats
1 cup raisins

Directions:

1. Heat the oven to 350 degrees F.
2. Beat butter and sugars on medium speed until creamy
3. Add eggs and vanilla; beat well
4. Add combined flour, baking soda, cinnamon and salt; mix well
5. Add oats and raisins; mix well
6. Drop dough using rounded tablespoonfuls onto ungreased cookie sheets
7. Bake 8-10 minutes or until golden light brown.

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Delicious "pan de maiz" or corn bread cookies from Huancayo, Peru, courtesy of my niece

Herminia's strong hands mixing dough

To me, “Baby” is reserved for what moms call their children, from birth to well, my age (no, I will not disclose that information)—and it’s perfectly okay. It’s beyond okay—it’s tender, loving and warm-feeling, sort of like being wrapped in a soft fluffy blanket or like being in a cozy kitchen.

Wrapping the dough to keep it cozy as it rests

“Baby” is also reserved for cookies. Yes, you read right—cookies. We Wanka and Quechua people from the Andean highlands of Peru love our food so much, we do everything short of breast-feed it. That would be weird. But we do love our food, and we do make awesome cookies during Christmas season that we call “wawa” [pronounced wa-wa], which translated from Quechua means quite simply, “baby.”

Masterpieces in the making: My nieces roll out their dough

Wawa are appropriately named because these cookies, like their Euro-American cousins, the gingerbread people, take the form of figures from our daily lives. Wawa cookies can be people, animals, etc, and depending on the cookie-makers like you and me, can be very elaborate, detailed and humorous.

Things that are part of our lives: Birds, donkeys, and dancing men

Making wawas is not as labor intensive as making real wawas. Ahem. Or so I’ve heard—Of course, I wouldn’t know anything about making real wawas because my fiancée sleeps in the bathtub when he visits since we are not yet married. Ahem.

More things that are part of our lives: Cats and fancy round people

Okay, back to wawa-making, the cookies, that is. These cookies are a real treat. They are mildly sweet, baked in big quantities and eaten throughout the season. Children and adults all over Peru adore them, and it’s hard to say what they love most—eating them or making them.

Herminia bakes a first batch

The women in my family got together and made these wawa, and so can you using these simple steps:

1. Make the dough and let it rest
2. Gossip vigorously
3. Haul the dough over to the neighbor’s brick oven
4. Form your wawa
5. Squabble over who’s wawa looks best (remember to bicker until someone cries)
6. Bake wawa and gossip some more
7. Take the wawa out and let cool
8. Eat wawa and make peace by conceding that everyone’s wawa cookies are beautiful (SO not true, but whatever)

Wawa ready for eating!

This article is dedicated to all the moms and dads and wawa in the world. Happy Holidays to you and yours—May you have a generous season filled with love. And cookies.

Wanka Wawa

Wanka Wawas (Brick-oven baked)
(Courtesy of Herminia Salazar Huaman)

Ingredients:
2 kilos of wheat flour
300 grams of vegetable shortening
50 grams of yeast
300-500 grams of sugar
50 grams of salt
10 grams of Anis water mixed with 10 grams of ground cinnamon (see preparation)
Cookie decorations of your choice (e.g. sprinkles, etc)
Beaten egg for brushing on to the cookies (optional)

Preparation for Anis water:
1. Boil anis in water with cinnamon, let cool slightly but keep warm

To make dough:
1. Mix in flour with anis water, slowly
2. Add in yeast, sugar, vegetable shortening and salt
3. Mix to make dough for about 20 minutes or until very smooth
4. Allow dough to rest, covered, for 1 hour
5. To make wawa, form shapes with the dough—be creative!
6. Decorate (or if you choose to brush with a beaten egg, then do so and then decorate)
7. Put into the oven and bake (In a brick oven, this will take approximately 20 minutes. Make sure to watch the cookies carefully as they tend to burn easily in a hot oven.)

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