Every Christmas season I make several batches of springerle cookies, from my grandmother’s handed-down recipe, and give them as gifts. To my family, these hard anise-seed cookies, embossed with a raised design, are known as “Grandmother’s Cookies.”  Each time I press one of her three wooden molds into silky-textured dough, I think of my grandmother doing the same, as well as her mother, and her mother’s mother. It’s as if my soul travels through time and communicates with my female forebears.  Our hands have touched the same piece of wood—carvings passed from one cook to another—and over a century they have produced a symbol of love and family. For more, click download button above!