Today’s Recipe is from PG Forte and is well I’ll let her tell you about it.
Bisochitos are traditional New Mexican Christmas cookies that are mentioned in my free read This Winter Night, ( found here) which is a prequel to my Steampunk Christmas novella, This Winter Heart.
INGREDIENTS:
6 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
3 teaspoons baking powder
2 cups shortening
1 1/2 cups white sugar
2 teaspoons anise seed
2 eggs
1/4 cup brandy
1/4 cup white sugar
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
DIRECTIONS:
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C)
- Sift flour with baking powder and salt.
- Cream shortening with sugar and anise seeds until fluffy.
- Beat in eggs one at a time.
- Mix in flour and brandy until well blended.
- Turn dough out on a floured board and pat or roll to 1/4 or 1/2 inch thickness. Cut into shapes (the fleur-de-lis is traditional).
- Dust with a mixture of 1/4 cup sugar and 1 tsp cinnamon.
- Bake for 10 to 12 minutes in the preheated oven, or until golden brown.
This Winter Heart
Santa Fe, The Republic of New Texacali, 1870
Eight years ago, Ophelia Leonides’s husband cast her off when he discovered she was not the woman he thought she was. Now destitute after the death of her father, Ophelia is forced to turn to Dario for help raising the child she never told him about.
Dario is furious that Ophelia has returned, and refuses to believe Arthur is his son—after all, he thought his wife was barren. But to avoid gossip, he agrees to let them spend the holidays at his villa. While he cannot resist the desire he still feels for Ophelia, Dario despises himself for being hopelessly in love with a woman who can never love him back.
But Dario is wrong: Ophelia’s emotions are all too human, and she was brokenhearted when he rejected her. Unsure if she can trust the man she desperately loves, she fears for her life, her freedom and her son if anyone else learns of her true nature…
Never heard of those cookies. Sound tasty.