1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted sweet cream butter butter, cold and cut into pieces

¾ cup Billington’s Milled Golden Cane Sugar

1 cage-free egg

¼ teaspoon pure vanilla extract

½ teaspoon baking powder

Scant 3 cups all-purpose flour

2 Tablespoons white sesame seeds

1 Tablespoon Chinese five-spice powder, or pumpkin pie spice if available

1 Tablespoon fennel seed, toasted and crushed

Tools

3 cookie cutters, each one a different shape

Cream the butter and sugar in a mixer fitted with a paddle attachment (or using a hand mixer) until fluffy.  Add the egg and vanilla and mix.

Stir the baking powder and flour together, then add in batches to the butter mixture, mixing just to combine after each addition. Divide the dough into 3 batches. Mix the sesame seeds into one batch, the five-spice powder into another, and the fennel seed into the third, making three different flavored doughs.  Form each batch into a disk, wrap separately and chill for at least 1 hour.  (The recipe can be made up to this point and kept refrigerated for up to 3 days.)