Make Spanish Polvorones, Crumbly Almond Cookies (2024)

Polvorones are traditional Spanish Christmas cookies flavored with almonds and crumbly in texture. Like polvo, "powder" or "dust"in Spanish, these cookies will crumble to a dust-like consistency in your hand or mouth, but the name also derives from the fact that some choose to dust them with generous amounts of powdered sugar, making them dusty on the outside.

Polvorones are a type of mantecado, a variety of Spanish shortbread made with manteca, or pork fat. Traditionally, these cookies were prepared from September to January only, but nowadays are available all year-round.

Polvorones have quite a history: during the Spanish Inquisition, officials decreed that polvoroneswere to be made with pork fat as a way to detect if there were Muslims or Jews hiding in the regions of Southern Spain. When asked to eat the pork-full cookies these individuals had to decline because of their faith and were then taken by the inquisidores to face trial. Today, polvoronesrecipes often replace the pork fat with shortening, butter or margarine, but have maintained their status in Spanish cuisine as a favorite holiday cookie, used now simply to sweeten our life.

Ingredients

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cup raw almonds
5 ounces (10 tablespoons) unsalted butter
3/4 cup sugar
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
Confectioners's sugar, for dusting, optional

Steps to Make It

Gather the ingredients.
Preheat oven to 350 F. Pour flour onto a cookie sheet.
Place the flour in the oven and toast it for about 8 minutes, occasionally stirring it so it toasts evenly. Alternatively, place flour in a non-reactive pan on the stove at medium heat and toast for 8 to 10 minutes while stirring. Remove from oven or pan and set aside.
See Also
Panellets (Pignoli Cookies)
Place raw almonds on another cookie sheet. Toast the almonds until they change color just slightly, or about 8 to 10 minutes.
Remove and place almonds into a food processor. Process almonds until they are finely ground into a flour-like texture.
Reduce oven temperature to 250 F. In a large mixing bowl, cream butter, sugar, salt, and vanilla together with a hand or electric whisk.
Add the flour and finely ground almonds to the butter mixture and incorporate all the ingredients well. The resulting dough will be very crumbly.
Place a sheet of waxed paper on a cutting board or another flat work surface. Press the dough together to form a ball. Then press the dough onto the waxed paper.
Carefully flatten it down with a floured rolling pin, into a 1/2-inch uniform thickness. Use a cookie cutter to cut out the cookies.
Sincethe dough is dry and flakey, use a small spatula to carefully move the cookies to the cookie sheet.
Bake cookiesfor 25 to 30 minutes until you see golden brown on the edges. Allow cookies to cool completely before removing them from the cookie sheet. They are so delicate that moving them while still hot will break them apart.
Once cooled, sift powdered sugar over the cookies and serve. Cookies can be stored in an airtight container for up to 10 days.

Flavored Polvorones

In origin, polvorones don't have additional flavoring because the almonds provide enough sweet and mild taste. But more often than not, home cooks add spices, other nuts, and zest to make their own version of this classic Spanish cookie. Here are a few suggestions:

Replace the almonds with hazelnuts or cashews for an earthier flavor.
Add 1/2 teaspoon of ground cinnamon and 1 teaspoon of vanilla to the dough.
Add 1 tablespoon of orange or lime zest for a citrus flavor.
Combine 50 grams of powdered sugar with 1 teaspoon of ground cinnamon and dust the cookies once they are cool.
Add 1/2 cup of grated Mexican chocolate to make a chocolate version.
Add a few drops of natural food coloring, from beets or pomegranate, to make a pink dough and shape the cookies as hearts, an ideal treat for Saint Valentine's Day. Use green coloring for Saint Patrick's shamrock-shaped cookies, or orange for pumpkin-shaped Halloween treats. Use green and red for tree-shaped Christmas cookies.

Spanish Desserts

Spanish Desserts
European Food

Nutrition Facts (per serving)
140	Calories
8g	Fat
16g	Carbs
2g	Protein

Show Full Nutrition Label

Nutrition Facts
Servings: 20
Amount per serving
Calories	140
% Daily Value*
Total Fat 8g	10%
Saturated Fat 4g	19%
Cholesterol 15mg	5%
Sodium 33mg	1%
Total Carbohydrate 16g	6%
Dietary Fiber 1g	3%
Total Sugars 8g
Protein 2g
Vitamin C 0mg	0%
Calcium 14mg	1%
Iron 1mg	3%
Potassium 43mg	1%
*The % Daily Value (DV) tells you how much a nutrient in a food serving contributes to a daily diet. 2,000 calories a day is used for general nutrition advice.

(Nutrition information is calculated using an ingredient database and should be considered an estimate.)

Recipe Tags:

cookies
dessert
spanish
christmas

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