3 teaspoons of anise, 6 cups of flour and lots of love: My grandma's biscochitos recipe is more than a delicious cookie

Sitting on the corner of my grandma’s kitchen counter is an old, white Hamilton Beach mixer. From the two attachable metal beaters to the matching glass Pyrex bowls, every inch of that mixer holds a special memory.

Its first home was in Santa Fe, New Mexico, where it sat in the kitchen at 1016 Don Cubero Avenue. The smell of warm, earthy anise would fill the room as it was hard at work, beating lard until it formed fluffy peaks.

The antique mixer originally belonged to Rita Gonzalez, my great-grandmother and the mother to my grandmother, Dolores McCulloch, aka Meema. The purchase had been life-changing. No longer was there the need to hand-mix cookie dough, pushing through the burning sensation that arose in your arms.

In the 1980’s, the mixer moved states, finding its new and final home in Nogales, Arizona. Just like in New Mexico, the mixer would be uncovered around Christmas time, ready to cream together lard, eggs and sugar.

Each and every year, my meema could count on her trusted mixer to create a special cookie that not only represented her childhood, but also her children's and grandchildren’s.

Biscochitos are her specialty, using a family recipe that spans four generations. To us, the cookie is more than a crumbly, melt-in-your-mouth treat. It embodies decades and decades of love.

For those unfamiliar, biscochitos are a New Mexican delicacy. (In fact, it’s the official state cookie.) Now, this isn’t your average sugar or chocolate chip cookie. Biscochitos are made with lard and anise, so you get a tender, buttery cookie packed with warm, comforting spices.

Every time Christmas rolled around, Meema was in the kitchen, rolling out dough and cutting out star-shaped cookies. With each year, she learned a new trick or tweaked the recipe.

For example, instead of crushing the anise herself, she had the bright idea of putting the seeds into her coffee grinder, making the perfect consistency. 

Though methods and the amount of anise changed from year to year, the deliciousness stayed exactly the same.

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