Polvorón de Sagú Yucateco

Ingredients

Equipment Needed

• •Heavy cast iron comal or skillet for toasting the sagú
• •Stand mixer with paddle attachment, or a wide bowl and a sturdy wooden spoon
• •Fine-mesh sieve for sifting and dusting
• •Two heavy sheet pans lined with parchment paper
• •Cooling racks

Instructions

1. 1

   Toast the sagú flour

   Heat a dry comal or heavy skillet over low heat. Add the sagú flour and stir constantly with a wooden spoon for 8 to 10 minutes. The flour should turn from bone white to the palest cream and smell faintly like toasted milk. Do not let it brown. This step is what gives the Yucatecan polvorón its distinctive flavor, the toasting that wakes up the starch. Skip it and you have a flat-tasting cookie. Pour the toasted flour onto a plate and let it cool completely.

   Sagú is delicate. Low heat and constant stirring, never medium. The moment you smell it shift from raw to faintly nutty, pull the pan off.
2. 2

   Cream the lard and sugar

   In a large bowl, beat the lard with the powdered sugar using a wooden spoon or a stand mixer with the paddle, for 5 to 7 minutes, until pale, light, and almost fluffy. This is the only place air enters this dough. Without it, the polvorones will be dense. La manteca es el sabor, and here it is also the structure.

3. 3

   Add the egg yolks and aromatics

   Beat in the egg yolks one at a time, then the vanilla, lime zest, salt, and cinnamon if using. The mixture should look like a smooth, fragrant cream. The lime zest is not garnish. In Yucatán the citrus is in everything, savory or sweet, and the polvorón is no exception.

4. 4

   Fold in the flours

   Sift the cooled toasted sagú flour with the wheat flour into the bowl. Fold gently with a spatula or your hands until the dough just comes together. Do not knead. Sagú has no gluten and the wheat flour has only enough to hold the cookie together. Overworking turns the dough tough and you lose the melt that defines a polvorón.

   The dough should feel like soft modeling clay, slightly oily from the lard. If it crumbles, your lard was too cold. If it sticks to your hands, it needs ten minutes in the refrigerator.
5. 5

   Rest the dough

   Wrap the dough in a clean cotton cloth and rest it on the counter for 20 minutes. The sagú needs time to absorb the fat evenly. The señoras of the convents in Mérida used to rest this dough wrapped in a linen napkin while they prayed the rosary. There is a reason. Skipping the rest gives you a crumbly, uneven cookie.

6. 6

   Shape the polvorones

   Heat the oven to 325F (165C). Line two sheet pans with parchment. Pinch off pieces of dough about the size of a walnut, around 20 grams each. Roll them between your palms into smooth balls, then flatten very gently with your thumb to make a small disc about half an inch thick. Place them an inch apart on the sheet pans. They will barely spread.

7. 7

   Bake low and slow

   Bake for 18 to 22 minutes, rotating the pans halfway through. The polvorones are done when the bottoms are pale gold and the tops are still nearly white. They should look underbaked. They are not. The sagú sets as it cools. Pull them too late and they will be hard. Así se hace y punto.

8. 8

   Cool and dust

   Let the polvorones rest on the sheet pans for 10 full minutes before moving them. They are extremely fragile while warm. A polvorón that breaks when you lift it was lifted too soon. Once they are firm enough to handle, transfer them carefully to a cooling rack. When completely cool, dust generously with powdered sugar through a fine-mesh sieve, or roll each one in sugar the way the cooks in Mérida do for weddings and First Communions.

Chef Tips

• •True sagú flour from the Yucatán is hard to find outside the peninsula. If you cannot get it, use commercial arrowroot starch from a good source. It is a compromise, not an upgrade. The peninsula sagú has more character because it is processed less, but arrowroot will give you the texture if not the full perfume.
• •Buy real manteca de cerdo from a Mexican carnicería, not the shelf-stable white blocks at the supermarket. Those are hydrogenated and tasteless. Good lard is creamy white with a faint pork smell when cold and tastes clean. If you cannot find it, render your own from pork fatback. It takes an afternoon and lasts months in the refrigerator.
• •These polvorones keep for two weeks in a sealed tin lined with parchment, and the flavor improves after the first day. Make them in advance for any occasion. They are the cookie that travels.
• •If you want to do it the way the dulcerías in Mérida do, wrap each finished polvorón in a twist of colored tissue paper. They become little wrapped gifts on the table at baptisms and weddings.

Advance Preparation

• •The dough can be made one day ahead, wrapped tightly in cotton cloth and plastic, and refrigerated. Let it come back to cool room temperature before shaping or it will crack.
• •Baked polvorones keep two weeks in an airtight tin lined with parchment. Dust with fresh powdered sugar just before serving.
• •The toasted sagú flour can be made a week ahead and stored in a sealed jar at room temperature, which makes assembly day fast.

Frequently Asked Questions

Nutrition Information

1 serving (about 17g)