Chef Lupita
Buñuelos Tabasqueños
Tabasco's posada-season buñuelos are thin rectangular wheat pastries fried until blistered, then finished with canela sugar or a dark miel de piloncillo that belongs on the holiday table.
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Polvorones Chiapanecos
Created by
Highland Chiapas polvorones, crumbly wheat cookies worked with manteca de cerdo, sugar, and canela, sold in pink, yellow, and white rows in San Cristobal dulcerias.
Pastries & Cookies
Mexican
Comfort Food
Holiday
Make Ahead
25 min
Active Time
18 min cook•1 hr 13 min total
Yield24 cookies
Chiapas, Los Altos first. San Cristobal de las Casas is where these polvorones sit in dulcerias by color, pale yellow, soft pink, white, stacked on cracked wooden trays beside turuletes and suspiros. This is not a chile dish. Not all Mexican food is chile and lime. Cada estado, su propia cocina.
The cookie depends on wheat flour and manteca de cerdo. That highland wheat tradition came through convent kitchens, bakeries, and market ovens, then the señoras made it practical: flour, fat, sugar, canela, the dough pressed by hand until it holds together but still breaks into sandy crumbs under your teeth. La manteca es el sabor. Use butter and you'll get another cookie.
I learned this version from a woman near the dulcerias off Real de Guadalupe who pinched the dough in her palm and told me, "if it shines, you worked it enough." She was right. The dough should feel soft, greasy in the honest way, and barely obedient. No me vengas con atajos. Polvoron means it must crumble. That is the point.
Polvorones descend from Spanish shortbread cookies brought into colonial Mexico, where wheat flour, sugar, and animal fat entered regional convent and bakery traditions. In Chiapas, especially in the highland bakery culture around San Cristobal de las Casas and Comitan, these cookies became mercado sweets sold by color rather than by elaborate decoration. The use of manteca de cerdo reflects the practical fat of household baking before industrial shortening changed many panaderia recipes in the 20th century.
The technique, the tradition, and the story behind every dish.
Discover Culinary ExplorerIngredients
all-purpose wheat flour
Quantity
3 cups
plus more for dusting
pork lard (manteca de cerdo)
Quantity
1 cup
at room temperature
granulated sugar
Quantity
3/4 cup
powdered sugar
Quantity
1/4 cup
large egg yolks
Quantity
2
at room temperature
Mexican vanilla extract
Quantity
1 teaspoon
ground Mexican canela
Quantity
1 teaspoon
baking powder
Quantity
1/2 teaspoon
fine sea salt
Quantity
1/2 teaspoon
milk (optional)
Quantity
1 tablespoon
only if the dough will not hold together
red food coloring (optional)
Quantity
a few drops
for pink polvorones
yellow food coloring (optional)
Quantity
a few drops
for yellow polvorones
| Ingredient | Quantity |
|---|---|
| all-purpose wheat flourplus more for dusting | 3 cups |
| pork lard (manteca de cerdo)at room temperature | 1 cup |
| granulated sugar | 3/4 cup |
| powdered sugar | 1/4 cup |
| large egg yolksat room temperature | 2 |
| Mexican vanilla extract | 1 teaspoon |
| ground Mexican canela | 1 teaspoon |
| baking powder | 1/2 teaspoon |
| fine sea salt | 1/2 teaspoon |
| milk (optional)only if the dough will not hold together | 1 tablespoon |
| red food coloring (optional)for pink polvorones | a few drops |
| yellow food coloring (optional)for yellow polvorones | a few drops |
Equipment Needed
- •Large mixing bowl and wooden spoon or stand mixer
- •Rolling pin
- •2-inch round cutter
- •Two baking sheets
- •Parchment paper
- •Thin spatula
Instructions
- 1
Cream the manteca
Place the room-temperature manteca de cerdo in a large bowl. Beat it with a wooden spoon or mixer for 3 to 4 minutes, until it looks lighter and soft enough to spread. Add the granulated sugar and powdered sugar and beat again until the mixture looks creamy, not fluffy like cake batter. This is panaderia dough. It needs body.
- 2
Add yolks and flavor
Beat in the egg yolks one at a time, then add the Mexican vanilla. The mixture should look smooth and glossy. If the manteca looks broken or grainy, keep beating for another minute. Fat carries the canela and sugar through the flour. That is why the cookie crumbles correctly.
- 3
Mix the dry ingredients
In another bowl, whisk the wheat flour, ground Mexican canela, baking powder, and salt. Add this to the manteca mixture in two additions. Mix just until the flour disappears and the dough gathers in soft clumps. Do not knead it like bread. Wheat flour has gluten, and if you work it too hard the polvoron turns tough instead of sandy.
Pinch a piece of dough in your palm. If it holds its shape and leaves a light shine from the manteca, it is ready. If it falls apart dry, add the milk one teaspoon at a time. Usually you will not need all of it. - 4
Color the dough
Divide the dough into three portions. Leave one plain. Work a few drops of red coloring into the second portion for pink polvorones and a few drops of yellow coloring into the third. Mix only until the color is even. In San Cristobal, the colors tell you the tray before the flavor tells you the cookie.
- 5
Rest the dough
Flatten each portion into a thick disk, wrap, and refrigerate for 30 minutes. This is not wasted time. The flour hydrates, the manteca firms, and the cookies keep their shape in the oven. Skip the rest and they spread like they have no discipline.
- 6
Shape the polvorones
Heat the oven to 325F. Line two baking sheets with parchment. Roll the dough gently to about 1/2 inch thick on a lightly floured surface, or press it by hand if you want the market look. Cut into 2-inch rounds and place them 1 inch apart. Gather scraps by pressing, not kneading. The surface should look matte and tender.
- 7
Bake until set
Bake for 16 to 18 minutes, rotating the pans halfway through. The bottoms should be lightly golden and the tops should stay pale, not browned. Pink must still look pink. Yellow must still look yellow. If they brown deeply, the sugar tastes bitter and the color is gone.
- 8
Cool before moving
Let the polvorones cool on the baking sheet for 10 minutes before touching them, then move them to a rack with a thin spatula. Hot polvorones break if you stare at them too hard. Once cool, they should crumble at the first bite and leave fine sugar and flour on your fingers. Así se hace y punto.
Chef Tips
- •Use fresh manteca de cerdo from a butcher or Mexican market if you can. It should smell clean and faintly porky, not rancid. Supermarket shelf-stable lard works in an emergency, but it has less flavor. A substitution is a compromise, not an upgrade.
- •Do not replace the manteca with butter and still call this Chiapaneco. Butter brings water and dairy flavor. Manteca brings the sandy crumb that makes a polvoron a polvoron.
- •Food coloring is not a modern insult here. The San Cristobal dulceria trays are identified by color. Use a light hand. These should look like bakery sweets, not candy.
- •If your kitchen is hot, chill the shaped cookies for 10 minutes before baking. Chiapas highland kitchens are cooler than many city apartments, and dough listens to temperature.
Advance Preparation
- •The dough can be made 2 days ahead, wrapped tightly, and refrigerated. Let it sit at room temperature for 15 minutes before rolling so it does not crack.
- •Baked polvorones keep for 5 days in a covered tin at room temperature. They are better after a few hours, once the manteca settles into the crumb.
- •Do not freeze finished polvorones unless you accept breakage. They are cookies built to crumble.
Frequently Asked Questions
Nutrition Information
1 serving (about 31g)
Calories
170 calories
Total Fat
9 g
Saturated Fat
4 g
Trans Fat
0 g
Unsaturated Fat
5 g
Cholesterol
25 mg
Sodium
60 mg
Total Carbohydrates
20 g
Dietary Fiber
1 g
Sugars
8 g
Protein
2 g
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