We all have our favorite Christmas cookies, be it the reliable sugar cookie dusted in red and green sprinkles or the spicy, melt-in-your-mouth wonder of pfeffernüsse cookies. Where you grow up can have huge impact on that and in New Mexico there’s a special type of cookies that’s made there every Christmas called biscochitos (pronounced like bisco-cheetos). Influenced by Mexican and Spanish baking traditions, these buttery cookies are loaded with orange zest and a bit of anise inside then dusted with cinnamon sugar on the outside. Truly these are some of the best cookies I’ve come across and I’m not even from the Southwest! However, they have skyrocketed to become my very favorite holiday dessert.

If you’re thinking that you don’t love anise then the amount in this recipe is modest, giving a hint of the licorice-like flavor. For a really intense anise seed flavor you’ll beed to add at least another teaspoon of anise seeds to the recipe. You can crush the seeds with a mortar and pestle, but I found that using my little spice grinder/coffee grinder worked perfectly for the purpose. You do want them very finely processed for this recipe. When you roll out the dough large chunks of spices can make using cookie cutters difficult, so make sure the anise is very fine.

You’ll also need the zest of 1 orange and the smaller the better for this as well.

The dough is traditionally made with lard, and some hold fast that this is the only way. But, I always make them with butter and they come out perfectly.

Like a shortbread cookie you don’t really want a lot of moisture in the dough. What little liquid there is comes from a bit of orange juice or red wine. You could even use brandy or rum if you prefer. When paired with cinnamon and anise the flavors combine to create a new profile that’s smooth, interesting, and hard to fully describe without tasting it.

Roll these cookies out and cut them into shapes using cookie cutters. A star is traditional and since I had both medium and small star cutters I was able to make a little design in the center by pressing the smaller star gently in the middle of each cookie. Other traditional shapes are diamonds, circles, and fleur-de-lis shapes.

I had to roll mine out in batches to keep the dough cold, but this wasn’t a huge problem for me, especially since I used my silicone baking mat to simplify the process.

As soon as these come out of the oven sprinkle them with cinnamon sugar so that the heat sort of fuses the mixture onto each cookie top. Wait for them to cool and then it’s time to enjoy the fruits of your labors! Even if you’ve never heard of these cookies before I guarantee that once you make them for yourself they will be your new Christmas cookie candidates every year running.