Cookies with pink and white anise seed sprinkles

In the Netherlands we have a tradition to serve something called 'beschuit met muisjes' when a child is born. 'Beschuit' is similar to rusks and 'muisjes' are sugar coated anise seed sprinkles. The sprinkles are called 'muisjes' (little mice), the reason for this name is that sometimes the anise seeds have little stalks attached making the sprinkles look like they have a tail, and therefor making them look like mice :) There are two different kinds, for girls there's pink and white mice and for boys there's blue and white mice (and when the crown princess has a baby there's a special edition in orange and white). Besides eating them on rusks to celebrate the birth of a new baby we also eat them on regular days, either on buttered bread or on buttered 'beschuit'. Just like we eat all kinds of sprinkles on our bread, chocolate being the most popular. (I know...crazy Dutch people eating sprinkles on their bread instead of cake ;)
I bought the tin you see in the picture below a while back, it's actually a tin for tea bags but I thought it would make a wonderful cookie container too. And since it looked very girly girl with the pink roses it was perfect to give to my good friend C who gave birth to a little girl a few weeks ago. Coincidentally the baby's name is Rosa so the tin was particularly appropriate :)
These cookies are really easy to make and are a nice twist on a Dutch tradition.



If you're interested in buying some Dutch sprinkles yourself, there a link here and a link here. If you google muisjes and sprinkles you'll get more...

Cookies with pink and white anise seed sprinkles

250 g (8 ¾ oz) flour
150 g (5 ¼ oz) butter, cold and cut into cubes
125 g (4 ½ oz) caster sugar
1 egg

for decoration:
white chocolate, melted
rose en witte muisjes

Rub the flour and butter between your fingertips until it resembles breadcrumbs. Add the sugar and stir it in. Stir in the egg. Knead briefly to combine and to let it come together. Chill for 30 minutes.
Preheat the oven to 180°C (350°F). Roll out the dough between 2 sheets of baking paper to a thickness of about 4 mm (1/6 in). Chill the dough between the baking paper for 30 minutes.
Cut the dough into squares. Place the squares onto baking sheets. Bake for 10-15 minutes or until they begin turning golden brown at the edges.
Allow to cool on the baking sheets for a few minutes. Transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.
Spread some white chocolate on each cookie and sprinkle with the rose en witte muisjes.