Soft Italian Anise Taralli

In a bowl of a stand mixer, fitted with the hook attachment, add in the flour, sugar, anise seeds yeast and eggs.Heat the oil and water together just until warm. (I used the microwave for 2 minutes however take care that it's not too hot).With the motor running on low speed, add in the liquids then gradually increase the speed to medium.Knead until ¾ of the flour has been incorporated then transfer the dough to a work surface and continue kneading by hand until you've worked in the remaining flour.This should take about 5 to 10 minutes of kneading time by hand until you've achieved a nice malleable dough with the remaining flour.Place the dough in a well greased large bowl and then cover with plastic wrap.Let the dough rest for 1½ hours. It will increase in size and look light and puffy.When your ready to roll the taralli, divide the dough in half and and return one half to your greased bowl and keep covered so it does not dry out.You'll also want to keep the dough your working with covered for the same reason.There is really no set rule on how long or how thick to role the taralli, its a matter of preference.For small taralli roll out a golf ball sized piece of dough to an 18 inch rope and cut into 3 piecesShape each piece into a ring and press the ends together to seal.For evenly round taralli, once you press the ends together insert your index and middle finger into the loop where the 2 ends meet and make a back and forth rolling motion for a well rounded shape.For big taralli cut a piece of dough the size of a golf ball and roll out to a half inch wide in diameter and about 12 to 14 inches long.Press the ends together in a loop while sealing the ends as you would the smaller taralli.Transfer the taralli on baking trays lined with a clean kitchen dish towel.When you've finished working with one half of the dough, bring a large pot of water to boil while you preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.Have 2 baking trays ready by your stove top and line one of them with a clean kitchen towel.Drop a few taralli into the boiling water and as soon as they resurface (this should take a few seconds) transfer them first to the unlined tray then to the tray lined with the clean kitchen towel to absorb any residual water.Transfer the boiled taralli onto a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper, spacing them about an inch apart.Bake in a preheated oven for about 24 minutes, turning to flip them over half way through the baking time. I baked them 12 minutes on each side)When ready the taralli will puff up somewhat and have a lovely golden brown appearance with crusty darker brown tops and bottoms.Repeat the whole process with the remaining dough.Small sized taralli yields approximately 8 dozen while bigger shaped taralli will yield about 3 dozen.Of course this will depend on the size you wish to make and again there are no set rules here.Simply have fun and enjoy!