Anise Seed Cookies

When my great-great-great-grandmother came to the United States from Holland she could only bring one piece of luggage with her on the boat ride over. She brought a small chest filled with her most valuable possessions, including a small piece of paper with this recipe. It has been passed down several generations and has been cut in half repeatedly due to the tremendously large number of cookies it makes. This recipe is somewhere between 1/16th to 1/32nd of the measurements of the original and it still makes several dozen cookies. We can only assume that the original recipe was used to make enough cookies for the entire village.

Prep: 25 min
Cook: 10-11 mins, 10 times
Total: About 2 hours
Yields 10-14 dozen cookies

Preheat oven to 400°F.
1 cup butter, softened
2 ½ cups sugar
In a large bowl, cream the butter and sugar.
1 ½ cups buttermilk
Add the buttermilk and mix gently.
1 ½ teaspoons baking soda
6 to 7 cups of flour
Add in the baking soda and flour. First stir by hand with a spoon to moisten and then beat gently.
1 glass spice jar of anise seed
Pour the entire jar of anise seeds into the dough and stir well to combine.
Sprinkle flour on a rolling sheet. Roll out a handful of dough with a rolling pin until it is between ¼ to 1/8 of an inch thick. (The thinner you roll the dough, the more cookies you'll get.)
Cut out with cookie cutters and place on a greased cookie sheet.
Bake at 400°F for 10 to 11 minutes or until golden. Repeat with remaining dough until all of the cookies have been made.