Clutjens

Pronounced "klijens", these appear to be similar to anise drop cookies, and are a tradition in the Kieffer household.  No one can make them quite like Grandma Helen Meier, however, and her recipe does not appear to be recorded anywhere with absolute precision.  Keith developed the version below after many conversations and several trials.

Clutjens

Makes a zillion cookies, so a half recipe is recommended.

3 cups sugar
1 cup crisco (or: 1 cup lard; or: 1 cup Promise brand margarine) (note: if using lard, must eat all cookies within 1 month)
2 eggs
1 tsp soda dissolved in 1 cup cold coffee (or: 1 cup hot water)
4 tsp anise seed (or: 1 Tbsp anise oil; or: 2 tsp anise seed and 1/2 Tbsp anise extract)
1 cup molasses (or: 1 cup dark Karo syrup)
1 tsp cinnamon
3-6 cups flour

Combine sugar and shortening, mix well.  Mix in eggs; add the soda and coffee, anise flavoring, molasses, and cinnamon, mixing well.  Add flour until batter reaches an almost-dough-like consistency.  Using more flour, roll into many thin snakes, about a nickel in diameter.

Set the snakes to chill/freeze overnight in a floured pan.  Cut the snakes into pieces about two nickels thick.  Bake on a greased cookie sheet for 13 minutes at 350 F.

The center four small ones are the ideal.  The outside corners are what we get when we try.

 

Alternatives:
- Use butter instead of crisco.  If lard is used, as was typical for Grandma Meier, cookies were only good for a week-month.  Crisco can last more than a month.
- Add enough flour so it rolls out easily.
- The more flour that is added, the harder the cookies end up - jawbreakers.  Could also use less flour and, while runny, drop by spoon-fulls or with a pastry bag onto a greased cookie sheet.  Should still chill overnight (drying out is desired) and then bake.  Frozen cuts easier, uses less flour. 
- In 2014, we used 6 cups flour and then used spoons to form the long snakes on cookie sheets.  The rows were wider than a nickel but were formed quickly.
- Instead of baking all at once, can freeze half for later.
- Cookies and dough freeze nicely.