Polvorones de Naranja Aguascalentenses

Ingredients

Equipment Needed

• •Fine rasp grater for orange zest
• •Wooden spoon or hand mixer
• •2-inch round or scalloped cookie cutter
• •Heavy aluminum baking sheets
• •Cooling rack

Instructions

1. 1

   Prepare the oven

   Heat the oven to 325F (165C). Set a rack in the center and line two heavy baking sheets with parchment. A thin tray burns the bottoms before the cookie sets. Use the good charola, the one that has earned its dark corners.

2. 2

   Scent the sugar

   Put the granulated sugar and orange zest in a mixing bowl. Rub them together with your fingers until the sugar turns damp and fragrant. That is the orange oil leaving the peel and entering the dough. If your hands do not smell like orange peel, keep rubbing.

   Grate only the orange skin. The white pith underneath is bitter, and bitterness in a pale cookie has nowhere to hide.
3. 3

   Work the manteca

   Add the manteca de cerdo to the orange sugar. Beat with a wooden spoon or hand mixer for 2 to 3 minutes, just until lighter and creamy. It should look like thick cream, not whipped frosting. Beat in the egg yolk and orange juice until the mixture comes together.

4. 4

   Add the flour

   Whisk the flour, baking powder, and salt in a separate bowl. Add the dry ingredients to the manteca mixture in two additions, mixing only until the flour disappears. The dough will look sandy, then clump when you press it in your fist. No me vengas con atajos: do not keep mixing because you want it smooth. Smooth here means tough later.

   If the dough refuses to hold after pressing, add 1 teaspoon more orange juice. Only one. Wet dough spreads and loses the polvorón texture.
5. 5

   Rest the dough

   Pat the dough into a thick disk and cover it. Rest 30 minutes at room temperature if your kitchen is cool, or refrigerate it if the room is hot. The flour drinks the moisture and the lard firms. This is why the cookie cuts clean instead of smearing under the cutter.

6. 6

   Cut the rounds

   Lightly flour the table and roll the dough to 1/2 inch thick. Cut 2-inch rounds or scalloped circles and move them to the baking sheets with a thin spatula, leaving 1 inch between cookies. Press scraps together once and roll again. Once. After that, the dough gets tired and the cookies get hard.

7. 7

   Bake until pale

   Bake one sheet at a time for 14 to 17 minutes, until the tops stay pale cream, the edges are set, and the bottoms are light gold. Do not chase brown tops. A polvorón that looks toasted on top is already dry inside. Let the cookies sit on the hot tray for 10 minutes before moving them; they are fragile while warm.

8. 8

   Dust and serve

   Move the cookies to a rack and dust with sifted azúcar glass while they are barely warm, not hot. The sugar should cling without melting into paste. Serve with café de olla or black coffee, the way a hidrocálido table does it when visitors are expected. Recetas probadas y garantizadas.

Chef Tips

• •Buy manteca de cerdo from a carnicería or a Mexican market with fast turnover. It should be white, clean, and mild. If it smells old, fried, or sharp, it will ruin the cookie. Si no conoces el mercado, no conoces la cocina.
• •Use unwaxed oranges when you can. If the oranges are waxed, scrub them well with hot water and dry them before zesting. The peel is the perfume of this recipe, so treat it like the main ingredient.
• •Butter is not an equal exchange. It browns faster and tastes dairy-rich. You can make a good butter cookie, but it will not be this hidrocálido polvorón. A substitution is a compromise, not an upgrade.
• •There are no chiles, no cinnamon blanket, no chocolate drizzle. Leave the cookie alone. The point is crumb, manteca, and orange. Así se hace y punto.

Advance Preparation

• •The dough can be made up to 2 days ahead and refrigerated tightly wrapped. Let it sit at room temperature for 15 to 20 minutes before rolling so the manteca softens enough to cut cleanly.
• •Cut unbaked rounds can be frozen on a tray, then packed in a sealed container for 1 month. Bake from frozen and add 2 minutes to the baking time.
• •Baked polvorones keep 8 days in a metal tin at room temperature. Dust with a little fresh azúcar glass before serving if the first coating has settled into the crumb.

Frequently Asked Questions

Nutrition Information

1 serving (about 27g)