Tadal Recipe, Italian-American Anise Cookie

These lightly spiced Italian-American cookies are festive & ready to party. They are delicious fresh after frosting, or letting age a day and dunking in coffee.

This recipe came to me from my friend Joanna, who found this recipe in a stash from her grandmother, Lucy and her grandmother’s best friend, Minnie, who both were born and raised in a thriving Italian-American community in mid-century Richmond, Indiana.

Important Historical Preservation Note: The original recipe labels these cookies taralla, but Joanna’s family has always called these cookies tadals. After a certain amount of research, and bothering Italian people, I have discovered that taralla and tadals are 2 distinct cookies, and since these cookies resemble tadals, I have labeled these cookies tadals. It’s never my job to change a recipe unless it is to make it more accessible, which is why I’ve done so here. I think it’s also in line with the oral tradition of Joanna’s family. So there you have it.

Tadals, Italian-American Anise Cookie

Yield: About 6 dozen 1″ cookies
Eat right after frosting for a tender, cake-like cookie, or let age in a covered container a day and dunk in coffee. 
Print Recipe

Ingredients
  

  • 6 eggs
  • 1 cup white sugar
  • 1 1/4 cup oil, canola or vegetable
  • 1 cup milk
  • 6 TBSP baking powder
  • 5 cups all-purpose flour
  • 1-2 tsp anise powder (use more or less to your taste)

For icing:

  • 4 cups powdered sugar
  • 1 1/2 sticks soft butter (6 ounces)
  • 3 T to 1 cup room temperature milk (milk will vary depending on how thick you’d like your frosting)
  • Food coloring (optional)
  • Sprinkles (optional)

Instructions
 

  • In large mixing bowl, or large bowl of standing mixer, whisk together eggs, sugar, oil & milk. 
  • Stir in flour, baking powder, anise. Mix evenly.
  • Let dough chill in fridge until easy to shape into balls (about an hour.) Or, if you’re not so picky about the tidiness of your cookies, skip this step. 
  • When ready to bake, preheat oven to 325. Line baking sheets with parchment paper.
  • Scoop 1″ balls of dough onto parchment (if dough is chilled, you can roll the dough in your hands to make smooth balls, and gently pat down). Leave plenty of space for cookies to grow.
  • Bake cookies for about 16 minutes, rotating after the first 8 minutes, until lightly brown on top and puffy. Let cool on a rack before frosting. 

For frosting:

  • Mix together powdered sugar and butter, either using a paddle attachment on a stand mixer, or in a bowl with a rubber spatula. 
  • Slowly drizzle in milk until you’ve reached desired thickness. Leave it thick if you want it to be a spreadable frosting (like in the picture), or if you’d like to dunk cookies in icing, add more milk.
    Note: if your milk is too cold, it will curdle the butter. If that happens, it’s not game over, but it might take a bit of muscle or paddling in a mixer to get the butter back to how it should be.
  • Add a few drops of food coloring, if you’d like. Frost or ice cookies, add a dash of sprinkles, and enjoy!
You can always do what I do – make your cookies all different sizes (intentionally, or not) and eventually land on the size you like. 1″ balls seemed to be the ticket.