Galletas de Xico La Duquesita

Ingredients

Equipment Needed

• •Two heavy baking sheets
• •Parchment paper
• •Wooden spoon or stand mixer
• •Fork or patterned glass for pressing
• •Wire cooling rack

Instructions

1. 1

   Heat the oven

   Heat the oven to 350F. Line two baking sheets with parchment. These cookies need even heat, not drama. A Veracruz panadería oven gives steady color. Your home oven has to do the same work.

2. 2

   Sift the dry ingredients

   Whisk the flour, salt, and baking powder together in a bowl. Do this before the fat is creamed so the dough comes together quickly. Overworked flour makes a hard cookie in the wrong way. This cookie should be firm, sandy, and clean under the teeth.

3. 3

   Cream the fats

   Beat the manteca de cerdo and butter with the sugar until pale and fluffy, about 3 minutes by mixer or 5 minutes by hand with a wooden spoon. The lard gives the cookie its short crumb. The butter gives aroma. Do not replace the manteca with oil. Oil cannot hold air, and the cookie will bake heavy. La manteca es el sabor.

4. 4

   Add yolks and vanilla

   Beat in the egg yolks one at a time, then add the Mexican vanilla. If you have Papantla vanilla, use it. Veracruz knows vanilla because vanilla belongs to this land. The dough should smell warm and floral before the flour ever touches it.

5. 5

   Make the dough

   Add the dry ingredients in two additions and mix only until the flour disappears. Pinch the dough. It should hold together without sticking to your fingers. If it crumbles like dry sand, add milk one teaspoon at a time. Not a splash. A teaspoon. Panadería dough teaches discipline.

6. 6

   Shape the cookies

   Roll the dough into balls the size of a large walnut, about 1 1/2 tablespoons each. Flatten each one gently into a thick disk, about 1/2 inch tall. Press the top with the tines of a fork or the bottom of a patterned glass if you want the old bakery look. Coat the tops lightly with sugar.

7. 7

   Bake until golden

   Bake for 18 to 22 minutes, rotating the pans halfway through, until the edges are golden and the tops look dry and set. Do not wait for deep brown tops. These are not American sugar cookies. They should bake firm enough to hold up in coffee, with a pale gold face and a deeper gold edge.

8. 8

   Cool completely

   Let the cookies rest on the pan for 10 minutes before moving them to a rack. They finish setting as they cool. Eat one warm if you want, but judge the cookie after it cools. The crumb should be firm, sandy, and ready for café de Coatepec. Así se hace y punto.

Chef Tips

• •Use clean, fresh manteca de cerdo from a butcher or a Mexican market. If it smells porky in a strong way, it is too old for cookies. Good lard smells mild and sweet after baking.
• •Papantla vanilla matters here. If you only have imitation vanilla, wait until you can buy the real thing. Vanilla is not decoration in a Veracruz cookie.
• •The cookie should be firm, not soft. People confuse tenderness with weakness. This one needs structure because it belongs next to coffee.
• •If the dough cracks at the edges when you flatten it, that is fine. Those small cracks catch sugar and brown beautifully.

Advance Preparation

• •The dough can be made one day ahead, wrapped tightly, and refrigerated. Let it soften for 20 minutes before shaping.
• •Baked cookies keep for 5 days in a tightly covered tin. Their texture improves after the first day, which is why they belong to make-ahead cooking.
• •Shaped unbaked cookies can be frozen for up to 1 month. Bake from frozen at 350F, adding 2 to 3 minutes.

Frequently Asked Questions

Nutrition Information

1 serving (about 30g)