polvorones

To balance all of the spicy Mexican food I made this week (Fire Roasted Salsa & Caldo Xochitl), I needed something sweet. I did a quick google search for "Mexican desserts" and found this little gem of a cookie.

I actually remember having these cookies when I was a child but was always under the impression that they were an Italian cookie... probably because we decided the name was fun to say in an over exaggerated Italian accent while running around the house with our mouths stuffed full of cookies. I think we did that for a straight. My poor mother.

I digress.

These yummy little crumbly cakes are somewhat similar to pie crust but a little cakier and a little crumblier. They are pretty much balls of butter, flour and sugar flavored with a little bit of cinnamon and vanilla. They crumble when you bite into them then melt on your tongue. What more could you want?

I worked off of this recipe that I found on Allrecipes.com. I needed to add quite a bit more flour to achieve a dough that could be shaped into balls. So, I would suggest starting with 1.5 cups and add 1/4 cup more at a time until the dough is dry enough for you to handle without them melting butter all over you and greasing up your hands.





Total Recipe cost: $2.21
Servings Per Recipe: 24 cookies
Cost per serving: $0.09
Prep time: 15 min. Cook time: 15 min. Total: 30 min.

INGREDIENTS		COST
1 cup (2 sticks)	butter	$1.41
1 cup	powdered sugar, divided	$0.18
1 tsp	vanilla extract	$0.30
2 cups	flour	$0.17
2 tsp	cinnamon, divided	$0.10
1/4 tsp	salt	$0.05
TOTAL		$2.21

STEP 1: Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Let the butter come to room temperature. Combine 1/2 cup of the powdered sugar with the butter. Whip the butter and sugar together until they are well incorporated and have a "creamed" texture (see photos below). You can use a mixer or a good 'ol fork and some elbow grease. Then stir in the vanilla extract.

STEP 2: In a separate bowl, combine the 1.5 cups of flour with 1 tsp of cinnamon and 1/4 tsp of salt. Mix them until the are evenly combined.

STEP 3: Stir the flour mixture into the creamed butter and sugar mixture. If the mix is still too sticky to form into balls with your hands, add more flour, 1/4 cup at a time. I added somewhere between 1/2 to 3/4 cup more after the initial 1.5 cups.

STEP 4: Shape the dough into 24 evenly sized balls (think ping pong balls). Combine the remaining 1/2 cup of powdered sugar and 1 tsp of cinnamon in a bowl and roll each ball in the sugar mixture to coat.

STEP 5: Place the sugar coated dough balls on a baking sheet and bake for 15-20 minutes at 350 degrees or until they are a light golden brown in color. Let the cookies cool before eating for optimum crumbly texture!

Step By Step Photos

Combine the room temperature butter and 1/2 cup of powdered sugar in a bowl.


Whip them up as best you can with a fork or use a mixer. This is super hard to do with cold butter so let it warm up.


In a separate bowl, combine 1.5 cups of flour, 1/4 tsp of salt and 1 tsp of cinnamon. Stir until they are well combined.


Mix the flour mixture into the butter mixture. The result should be a stiff dough. If it is still really soft and too sticky to pick up and make a ball out of, add more flour 1/4 cup at a time until you are able to work with it using your hands. If the butter was really warm to begin with, you can put the bowl in the refrigerator to stiffen it up a bit.


Roll the dough into 24 ping pong sized balls. Mix together 1 cup powdered sugar and 1 tsp of cinnamon and roll the balls in it to coat.


Place the sugar coated balls *cough* on a baking sheet and bake at 350 degrees for 15-20 minutes or until they are golden brown.


When they are finished they will be a light golden brown color and the sugar coating will look a little crackled like this. Let them cool before eating!