New Mexico’s state cookie, a seasonal treat, gets the year-round spotlight at the Inn of the Governors.
Around Christmastime in New Mexico, biscochitos, the delicate butter cookies laced with anise and covered with cinnamon and sugar, are everywhere. But at the Inn of the Governors in Santa Fe, the state’s official cookie is served year-round and every day, at 4 p.m., tea time (which also happens to be sherry time, including a selection from Santa Fe Spirits that’s made with apples from a nearby orchard), held in the hotel’s lobby.
Biscochitos
(Makes 8 – 10 dozen)
4 large eggs
1 cup sugar
1 cup lard
1 teaspoon vanilla
4 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 tablespoon anise seeds, crushed with the back of a knife
1 tablespoon cinnamon mixed with 1 cup sugar
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
Put eggs, sugar, lard, and vanilla in a mixer bowl and beat until light and fluffy. Add flour and baking powder and mix just until incorporated. Add the crushed anise seeds. The dough should be the consistency of piecrust dough.
On a lightly floured board, roll out the dough thick or thin (however you prefer), but to a consistent thickness. Cut out cookies, dip them in the cinnamon-sugar, and lay them out on a parchment-lined baking sheet, with 1-inch in-between.
Bake at for 12 – 15 minutes. Let cool completely.
For more information on the Inn of the Governors and to make reservations, visit the hotel's website. Adapted with permission from a recipe at the Inn of the Governors in Santa Fe. Photography: Courtesy Inn of the Governors. Subscribe to the forthcoming monthly Taste of the West e-newsletter below.