Anginetti is a part of every family celebration – Thanksgiving, Christmas, Easter, Engagements, Weddings, Graduations – you name it they were there.

Anginetti are also referred to as Lemon Drops, Italian Lemon Drops, Italian Knot Cookies and Rosette; naturally each family has their own coveted recipe.
INGREDIENTS:
12 sticks of unsalted butter, room temperature
1 cup granulated sugar – Finely grated peel of one lemon
2 tsp. pure anise extract – 6 large eggs, room temperature
½ tsp. kosher salt – 5 cups all purpose flour, plus additional for shaping
6 tsp. baking powder – 1 pound of confectioners sugar
Juice of 1 lemon – 1 tsp. pure lemon or anise extract
¼  to ½ cup of cool water – Colored sprinkles if desired
Preheat the oven to 350F, line three heavy duty baking sheets with parchment paper. Adjust the racks of the oven to the center top and center bottom. Combine the 5 cups of flour, salt and baking powder and stir with a whisk to incorporate. Place the softened butter, sugar and lemon peel in the work bowl of a standing mixer. Beat on medium speed until well combined, stopping to scrape down the bowl.
Add the anise extract and continue to beat for an additional 2 minutes, scraping the bowl twice during that time. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating at medium high speed for one minute each, scraping down the bowl before adding the next egg.
With the mixer on a low setting, slowly add the dry ingredients – 1 cup at a time until combined. The dough should be soft but come away from the sides of the bowl.

Dust your work surface with a little flour and turn the dough out onto the work surface. Knead briefly and cover loosely with plastic wrap.
Begin forming the Anginetti by taking a small portion of the dough, start with about 1 cup and roll into a rope about ½ inch in diameter.

You may need to lightly flour the work surface, however be careful not to add too much flour to the existing dough. Cut the rope into 4 to 4½ segments and begin to form the cookies by looping the small rope and bringing the end under the center to form a knot. Place on the parchment lined baking sheet.
Continue until you have used all of the dough. Bake for 7 minutes, quickly open the oven and reverse the placement of the baking sheets.

Bake for an additional 5 minutes or until the cookies are lightly colored and have risen. Do not over bake these as the resulting Anginetti will become quite hard. Remove to a cooling rack and begin to prepare the icing.