Chef Lupita
Churros de Coatepec
Veracruz's coffee-town churros, piped into long ridges, fried until crisp outside and tender within, then rolled in canela sugar and served with thick chocolate from the highland table.
Culinary Explorer
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Polvorones Jarochos de Xico
Created by
Veracruz mountain shortbread from Xico, worked with manteca de cerdo until sandy, baked pale, then dusted with cinnamon sugar and wrapped in colored paper for the romeria.
Pastries & Cookies
Mexican
Make Ahead
Holiday
Celebration
35 min
Active Time
18 min cook•1 hr 23 min total
Yield24 cookies
Veracruz, in the mountain country around Xico, makes these polvorones for walking, gifting, and carrying through a fiesta without pretending they are delicate. Xico sits near Xalapa and Coatepec, where coffee, vanilla, piloncillo, and wheat pastries meet the humid green of the sierra. This is not beach Veracruz. This is the highland kitchen, with a basket on the table and colored paper ready for the romeria of Santa Maria Magdalena.
The fat is manteca de cerdo. Say it clearly. Butter makes a fine cookie, but it does not make this crumb. The lard coats the flour so the polvoron breaks under your teeth, then disappears before you finish arguing about whether it needs more canela. La manteca es el sabor, even in pastry. No me vengas con atajos.
I learned a version of these from a woman outside the Xico market who sold them tied in bright papel de china, stacked next to pan dulce and little bags of mole xiqueno. She pressed one into my hand and told me, 'No lo amases como bolillo.' Do not knead it like bread. That is the whole lesson. Work the dough only until it gathers, or you will make a tough cookie and blame the recipe. Saber cocinar es saber vivir.
Polvorones descend from Iberian shortbread traditions brought to New Spain during the colonial period, but Veracruz cooks adapted them with local pantry signatures: pork lard, piloncillo, canela, and vanilla from the Papantla region. Xico's association with pilgrimage food is tied to the July fiesta of Santa Maria Magdalena, when sweets, breads, mole xiqueno, and market snacks circulate through the town as part of the romeria. The word 'jarocho' is often used broadly for Veracruz identity, but these cookies belong to the central highland Veracruz table, not to a single national idea of Mexican pastry.
The technique, the tradition, and the story behind every dish.
Discover Culinary ExplorerIngredients
all-purpose flour
Quantity
2 1/2 cups
plus more for dusting
cornstarch
Quantity
1/2 cup
powdered sugar
Quantity
3/4 cup
fine sea salt
Quantity
1/2 teaspoon
ground canela
Quantity
1 teaspoon
preferably Mexican cinnamon
pork lard (manteca de cerdo)
Quantity
1 cup
room temperature but not melted
large egg yolk
Quantity
1
Mexican vanilla extract
Quantity
2 teaspoons
preferably Papantla vanilla
whole milk (optional)
Quantity
2 to 3 tablespoons
only if needed
granulated sugar
Quantity
1/2 cup
for dusting
ground canela
Quantity
1 teaspoon
for dusting
| Ingredient | Quantity |
|---|---|
| all-purpose flourplus more for dusting | 2 1/2 cups |
| cornstarch | 1/2 cup |
| powdered sugar | 3/4 cup |
| fine sea salt | 1/2 teaspoon |
| ground canelapreferably Mexican cinnamon | 1 teaspoon |
| pork lard (manteca de cerdo)room temperature but not melted | 1 cup |
| large egg yolk | 1 |
| Mexican vanilla extractpreferably Papantla vanilla | 2 teaspoons |
| whole milk (optional)only if needed | 2 to 3 tablespoons |
| granulated sugarfor dusting | 1/2 cup |
| ground canelafor dusting | 1 teaspoon |
Equipment Needed
- •Wide mixing bowl for rubbing fat into flour by hand
- •Rolling pin
- •2-inch round cutter or small glass
- •Two heavy baking sheets
- •Palm-fiber basket or shallow panadera tray for serving
Instructions
- 1
Prepare the pans
Heat the oven to 325F. Line two baking sheets with parchment. Do not grease the pans. These cookies already carry their fat, and extra grease makes the bottoms fry instead of bake.
- 2
Mix the dry base
Whisk the flour, cornstarch, powdered sugar, salt, and 1 teaspoon canela in a wide bowl. Break up any lumps of sugar with your fingers. The cornstarch is not decoration. It weakens the flour just enough to give the polvoron that sandy Veracruz crumb.
- 3
Work in the lard
Add the room-temperature manteca de cerdo in spoonfuls. Rub it into the flour with your fingertips until the mixture looks like damp sand and holds together when squeezed. This is the important step. You are coating flour with fat, not making bread dough. If you knead, you build toughness. If you rub, you build crumb.
The lard should be soft enough to press with a finger but never melted. Melted lard makes greasy cookies with hard edges. - 4
Bind the dough
Beat the egg yolk with the vanilla and add it to the bowl. Toss with your fingers or a fork until the dough begins to gather in rough clumps. If the dough stays dry after a minute, add milk one tablespoon at a time. Stop as soon as it comes together. The dough should feel tender, not wet.
- 5
Rest the dough
Pat the dough into a thick disk, wrap it, and rest it at room temperature for 20 minutes. This short rest lets the flour hydrate without chilling the lard hard. Xico's bakers work this dough gently because the cookie should crumble cleanly, not snap like a cracker.
- 6
Shape the cookies
Lightly flour the counter and roll the dough to about 1/2 inch thick. Cut into 2-inch rounds, or press small balls gently into thick disks if that is easier. Gather scraps by pressing them together, not kneading. Set the cookies 1 inch apart on the prepared sheets.
- 7
Bake until pale
Bake for 16 to 18 minutes, rotating the pans halfway through. The tops should stay pale and dry, with only the faintest color at the bottom edge. Do not wait for golden tops. A browned polvoron tastes toasted instead of tender.
- 8
Sugar while warm
Mix the granulated sugar with the remaining 1 teaspoon canela. Let the cookies sit on the baking sheet for 5 minutes so they firm up, then gently roll or dust them in the cinnamon sugar while still warm. Warm cookies catch the sugar. Hot cookies break. Cold cookies reject it. Así se hace y punto.
- 9
Wrap for fiesta
Cool completely before storing. For Xico-style presentation, wrap each cookie in a square of colored tissue paper or stack them in a palm-fiber basket lined with a cotton servilleta. They keep their shape, they travel well, and they taste better the next day.
Chef Tips
- •Use clean, fresh manteca de cerdo from a butcher or Mexican market. If it smells porky in a heavy way, save it for beans, not pastry. For sweets, the lard should smell mild and clean.
- •Papantla vanilla matters here. Veracruz is vanilla country, and the aroma belongs in the cookie. Imitation vanilla gives you sweetness with no depth. A substitution is a compromise, not an upgrade.
- •Do not brown these like American shortbread. Polvorones jarochos should be pale, tender, and sandy. The flavor comes from lard, canela, sugar, and vanilla, not from dark oven color.
- •If your kitchen is very hot, rest the shaped cookies in the refrigerator for 10 minutes before baking. The goal is structure, not a hard chilled dough.
Advance Preparation
- •The dough can be made 1 day ahead, wrapped tightly, and refrigerated. Let it soften at room temperature until pliable before rolling.
- •The baked cookies keep for 5 days in a covered tin at room temperature. Dust again with cinnamon sugar before serving if the surface has absorbed it.
- •For gifting, wrap only after the cookies are completely cool. Warm cookies trapped in paper turn soft, and that is not the texture you worked for.
Frequently Asked Questions
Nutrition Information
1 serving (about 34g)
Calories
170 calories
Total Fat
9 g
Saturated Fat
4 g
Trans Fat
0 g
Unsaturated Fat
5 g
Cholesterol
16 mg
Sodium
50 mg
Total Carbohydrates
20 g
Dietary Fiber
1 g
Sugars
8 g
Protein
2 g
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