Italian Cookie recipe--please help

My grandmother and aunt used to make an Italian cookie every year, and I would like to try to make it myself. Unfortunately, I can’t think of the name of the cookie, and I do not have a recipe.

The cookies look like 4-6 inch logs, cream colored, very crusty, and taste slightly of anise. I know they’re not biscotti. I seem to remember that they said that the cookies are boiled at some point in the cooking process, if only for a few seconds, and that they are very difficult to make.

They would both say that dunking them in coffee makes them a little easier to bite into, since as I mentioned, they are very crusty (you’d think they were stale if you didn’t know they were just made).

Anyone have any idea what the name of this cookie is, and do you have a recipe?

Taralli
You can half this recipe; leave yeast and eggs the same.
Ingredients
1 (.25 ounce) package active dry yeast
1 1/2 cups water
1/4 cup margarine
1 1/2 tablespoons white sugar
1 tablespoon salt
1 egg
5 pounds all-purpose flour, divided
1/2 cup fennel seed
1/4 cup water (optional)
Directions
1 In a small bowl, dissolve yeast in water. Let stand for 5 minutes.
2 In a large bowl combine butter or margarine, sugar, salt, and egg. Add yeast mixture and 1/2 of the flour and mix until smooth. Stir in the remaining flour and the seeds. Mix in additional water as needed to make a stiff dough.
3 Turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface. Knead well. Place dough in a lightly oiled bowl, and turn once to coat surface. Cover with a damp cloth and place in a warm spot to rise for about 1 1/2 hours.
4 Roll dough into short ropes about 1/2 inch thick. Join ends to form donut shape. Set aside to rise for a few minutes.
5 Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
6 Fill a large saucepan half full of water; bring to a boil. Drop taralli into water and boil for 1 minute. Remove from water, letting both sides dry on a sheet of waxed paper.
7 Bake at 350 degrees F (175 degrees C) on a lightly greased cookie sheet, turning a few times during baking until medium brown and crisp.

While that recipe looks good, I don’t think it’s the one. There are two things about it that make me doubt that it’s what I’m looking for. Neither my aunts nor my grandmothers recipe contained seeds, although the cookie did taste mildly like anise, and the cookie wasn’t round like a donut.

What I’m looking for is maybe about the size and shape of a candy bar (I have a 2 oz. Fast Break bar on my desk, and I don’t remember the cookie being much larger than that. Maybe a tiny bit wider, but not much).

I may try your recipe in the future, however. As for instruction #7, how long do I bake it for? 8-10 minutes or so?