Anise Balls

A friend of mine was able to find anise oil for me so I was able to make this recipe exactly as written, & I'll tell you, these little buggers are ABSOLUTELY WONDERFUL! I served them with a bowl of frosting on the side, so that guests who wanted could frost them as much or as little as they liked! Some of us preferred them without, but another time I might take a hint from RecipeNut & use an anise flavored icing! Definitely a keeper of a recipe no matter what I use on top! [Tagged, made & reviewed in Gimme 5 tag]

Excellent cookie, I tried it with Duncan Hines Premium Vanilla Frosting and plain, and preferred the plain cookie. RecipeNut had the right idea about a thinner glaze-like icing that will harden. My cookies with the canned frosting required a moist towelette afterward, and the frosting took attention away from the cookie itself. I used a small fruit baller to set a consistent size, and ended up with 68 3/4 cookies. Couldn't find anise oil, but anise extract worked fine for me. Thanks for sharing, Lainey! Made for Please Review My Recipe.

Yes these are outstanding! I also used the extract also and they came out perfect! These are truely the Italian Cookie! I used icing made from confectioners sugar milk and a teaspoon of the anise extract. Thanks for a definite keeper not only during the holiday season but year round at my house!

I made these for a wedding and they turned out perfect and delicious, they got rave reviews from everyone.

OK I know you state to use oil but I had the extract and it worked out very good! The anise flavor came through perfectly! I did chill maybe 2 hours and found the dough quite workable and was able to roll them into balls. The pictures posted is not iced But I plan to freeze them for the holidays and will dip them into anise glaze just before serving. And yes I will make them festive by adding coloring and maybe sprinkles. Thanks for a very easy and flavorful recipe.