Springerle Iii - cooking recipe

Ingredients

4 egg whites
4 cups sifted confectioners' sugar
4 egg yolks, beaten
3 1/2 cups cake flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons anise seed

Preparation

Beat egg whites. Add sifted powdered sugar and beaten egg yolks. Beat for 15 minutes (!)
Sift cake flour with baking powder and salt.
When you roll them out, use just enough flour to roll easily. Roll lightly to 1/4 or 1/2 inch thickness and press design into dough with a well-floured 'Springerle' rolling pin - but don't go all the way through the dough. (The rolling pin has designs cut into it. They sell them in specialty stores.)
Butter a cookie sheet and then sprinkle it with anise seed. Cut each section apart carefully and transfer the cookies to the sheet.
Let stand overnight to set the design. Otherwise, they sort of melt into themselves.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (180 degrees C).
Bake for 15 minutes. Do not brown. Springerles are hard at first, but if you store them in a bread box they become tender.