Fennel seeds cookies

In Vietnam, we don’t have fennel but we have dill – a very similar tree with rather identical leaves as fennel except for the bulb. Dill is used very popularly in Vietnamese cooking. But fennel is still quite new. I have never tasted the fennel, so I really don’t know whether it tastes like the dill or not. 

That why I was amazed to know that fennel seeds could be used in cooking and baking as well. This was my first experience with fennel seeds and my second trial with my cookie press. The cookies were perfect to our liking. They contained the chocolate taste and fragrance. Especially the fennel seeds created a very typical fragrance, but you can only feel that when chewing the cookie in your mouth. Very interesting with these cookies. 

 Ingredients (about 50 cookies) 

- 300g all-purpose flour

- 1/4 tsp salt

- 60g semi-sweetened chocolate, chopped

- 125g unsalted butter, soften

- 140g sugar

- 1 tsp vanilla extract

- 2 tbs milk

- 1 large egg, lightly beaten

- 2 tbs fennel seeds

Methods:

- Preheat the oven to 350F. Do not need to grease the cookie sheets.

- Combine the flour and salt. 

- Melt the chocolate over simmering water. 

- With an electric mixer, beat the butter and sugar at high speed until creamy. Add the vanilla, milk and egg, beat until just blended. Mix in  the flour and melted chocolate until well combined. 

- Choose any cookie press template, press out the cookies, spacing about 2m apart. Top each cookie with a few fennel seeds. 

- Bake about 8-10 minutes until the cookies are crisp. 

- Remove from the oven and let cool on a wire rack. 

Stored in an air-tight container for up to 1 week, the cookies are still crispy.