Polvorones Yucatecos de Naranja

Ingredients

Equipment Needed

• •Molcajete or mortar for crushing the anise
• •Small cast iron comal or skillet for toasting
• •Wide mixing bowl or stand mixer with paddle attachment
• •Two heavy sheet pans lined with parchment
• •Fine-mesh sieve for dusting sugar
• •Tin or glass jar with a tight lid for storage

Instructions

1. 1

   Toast the anise

   Set a small dry comal or skillet over medium-low heat. Add the anise seeds and toast them for 30 to 45 seconds, swirling the pan, until they release their perfume. Tip them into a molcajete and crush them coarsely. Not to powder. You want little flecks that will catch your teeth and tell you what you are eating. Skip the toasting and the anise tastes like dust.

   Anise burns faster than it looks. The second you smell licorice, pull the pan off the heat.
2. 2

   Beat the manteca

   Place the lard in a wide bowl. Beat it with a wooden spoon or a stand mixer on medium for three to four minutes, until it looks pale and creamy and holds soft peaks when you lift the spoon. This is where the texture begins. Cold lard from the refrigerator will not aerate. Warm lard from a hot kitchen will go greasy. Cool room temperature, soft but not melting. La manteca es el sabor and it is also the structure.

3. 3

   Add sugar and aromatics

   Add the powdered sugar in two additions, beating well between each. Add the crushed anise, the orange zest, the orange juice, the agua de azahar, and the salt. Beat for another minute until everything is fragrant and even. Stop and smell the bowl. It should smell like a Mérida bakery at six in the morning: orange, anise, the faint floral note of azahar. If it does not, your azahar is old. Buy a new bottle.

4. 4

   Fold in the flour

   Add the sifted flour in three additions, folding gently with a rubber spatula or your hands. Stop the moment the flour disappears. Do not knead this dough. Polvorones get their crumble from minimal gluten development. Overwork them and you have made galletas, not polvorones. The dough should look shaggy but hold together when you press a handful. If it feels dry, add a teaspoon of orange juice. Not more.

   Working the dough with your hands works better than a mixer here. You can feel when it has come together and stop right there. A mixer will keep going past the point you wanted.
5. 5

   Rest the dough

   Cover the bowl with a clean cotton servilleta and let it rest at cool room temperature for 20 minutes. The flour needs time to hydrate evenly and the lard needs to firm up just enough to shape. Do not refrigerate. Cold dough cracks instead of pressing.

6. 6

   Shape the polvorones

   Heat the oven to 325F. Line two sheet pans with parchment. Pinch off pieces of dough about the size of a walnut, roll each one between your palms into a ball, and press gently with your thumb to flatten the top slightly. Place them on the sheet pans with about an inch of space between them. They will not spread much. Some cooks in Mérida press them with a wooden cookie stamp. Some leave them plain. Both are correct.

7. 7

   Bake low and slow

   Bake one sheet at a time on the middle rack for 18 to 22 minutes. They are ready when the bottoms turn pale gold and the tops still look almost raw. Polvorones should never brown on top. If they do, the oven was too hot or you waited too long. Pull them out and let them cool on the sheet for ten full minutes. They will be fragile when warm. Move them too soon and they crumble in your hand before they reach the plate.

   Every oven lies. Check at 16 minutes the first time. Once you know your oven, you know your time.
8. 8

   Dust and rest

   When the cookies are cool enough to lift but still slightly warm, dredge each one in powdered sugar through a fine sieve, or roll them gently in a bowl of sugar. Let them rest at least an hour before serving. Polvorones taste better the next day, when the lard and the orange and the anise have settled into each other. Store in a tin lined with parchment. They keep two weeks and only get better. Recetas probadas y garantizadas.

Chef Tips

• •Buy fresh lard from a carnicería or render it yourself from pork fatback. The hydrogenated lard in a green box at the supermarket is not the same ingredient and will give you a waxy, off-tasting cookie. If you cannot get fresh manteca, this is not the recipe to make today. Make it next week when you can.
• •Naranja agria is the soul of Yucatecan cooking and the zest of one will perfume this dough in a way that sweet orange cannot match. If you cannot find it, mix the zest of one regular orange with a teaspoon of grapefruit zest and a few drops of lime. A compromise, not an upgrade.
• •Agua de azahar is the floral note that says Mérida. Buy it from a Middle Eastern or Mexican grocer, not the baking aisle of a chain supermarket where the bottles sit for years and lose their perfume. One teaspoon is the right amount. Two and the cookies taste like soap.
• •Polvorones are not Christmas cookies. They are everyday cookies, eaten with morning chocolate, afternoon coffee, or as a small sweet after dinner. Make a big batch and keep them in a tin. They are better on day three than day one.

Advance Preparation

• •The dough can be made one day ahead, wrapped in parchment, and held at cool room temperature. Do not refrigerate. Cold dough cracks when you try to shape it.
• •The baked polvorones keep for two weeks in a tin lined with parchment, stored at room temperature. The flavor deepens by day three as the orange, anise, and lard settle into each other.
• •Toasted and crushed anise can be made a week ahead and stored in a small jar. Crush only what you need for the recipe so the aromatics stay alive.

Frequently Asked Questions

Nutrition Information

1 serving (about 21g)