Anise Perfection

Many of you know I'm *somewhat* addicted to a (yet another) confection made down the street in our neighborhood. Modern Pastry (see a prior post on Torrone) bakes up a delightful cakey Anise cookie, and packages a half dozen of them in a sly little unassuming plastic bag fastened with a run-of-the-mill twist-tie. Totally unlabeled, and shoved off to the side--these cookies don't even demand their own counter space, let alone a domed cake plate. How we discovered these a few years ago is unclear, but in recent months they've grown into a dangerous addiction. Only after purchasing four bags of them in the span of two weeks--coming to terms with my addiction--did I get online to search for a recipe so I could try my hand at duplication. This morning I set about the task. After combining the eggs and sugar, butter and shortening, anise seed, vanilla, and almond extract, flour and baking soda and powder, I balled up pieces of dough and baked them up. I was so curious to see if they would turn out like Modern's. I glazed them with powdered sugar, milk, and anise extract, and topped them with traditional colored nonpareils, in the traditional Italian (Italo-American?) style. I waited 20 minutes until the icing hardened, eager to take my first bite. It was ... crunchier than I was used to, and had a stronger anise and almond flavor than the others, but overall very good. I'm not settling on this one, though. I aim to perfect my recipe in the coming months.