Saramuyos Yucatecos

Ingredients

Equipment Needed

• •Wide mixing bowl
• •Two heavy-bottomed baking sheets
• •Parchment paper
• •Pastry brush
• •Wire cooling rack

Instructions

1. 1

   Cut the lard into the flour

   In a wide mixing bowl, whisk together the flour, granulated sugar, baking powder, and salt. Add the cold cubes of manteca de cerdo. Work the lard into the flour with your fingertips until the mixture looks like coarse sand with a few pea-sized lumps still visible. La manteca es el sabor. Do not substitute butter. The pork lard is what gives saramuyos their crisp shell and soft, almost sandy interior. Butter makes a different cookie entirely.

   Keep the lard cold. If your kitchen is warm, put the bowl in the refrigerator for ten minutes once you finish cutting in the fat.
2. 2

   Add the wet ingredients

   In a smaller bowl, beat the two eggs with the cold milk, vanilla, and lime zest. Pour the wet into the flour and lard mixture. Bring it together with a wooden spoon, then turn it onto the counter and knead two or three times only, just until it forms a cohesive dough. Do not overwork it. Saramuyos are not bread. The less you push, the more tender they come out.

3. 3

   Rest the dough

   Pat the dough into a thick disc, wrap it in a clean kitchen cloth, and let it rest at room temperature for one hour. This rest is not negotiable. The flour hydrates, the lard sets back up, and the dough relaxes enough to shape without springing back. Mexican grandmothers wait. You wait.

4. 4

   Shape the volcanoes

   Heat the oven to 350F. Line two baking sheets with parchment. Divide the dough into twelve equal pieces, about the weight of a small lime each. Roll each piece into a smooth ball between your palms. Place on the sheets, then pinch the top of each ball upward between your thumb and two fingers to form a peak. The shape should remind you of the saramuyo fruit at the market in Merida: round at the base, drawn to a soft point at the top. That peak is the whole identity of the cookie.

   Leave about two inches between each one. They spread a little as they bake but the volcano shape holds if your dough is cold enough.
5. 5

   Wash and crown with sugar

   Brush each volcano gently with the egg wash, paying attention to the peak. Pinch a generous quarter teaspoon of turbinado sugar between your fingers and press it onto the very tip of each cookie, letting a few crystals fall down the sides. The crystal sugar on the peak is the crown. It catches the oven heat first and caramelizes into a tiny crisp cap. Without it, you have a roll. With it, you have a saramuyo.

6. 6

   Bake until the bases turn gold

   Bake for 22 to 25 minutes, rotating the sheets halfway through. The cookies are ready when the bases are deep gold, the sides are pale beige, and the sugared peaks have darkened to a glassy amber. The kitchen will smell like vanilla and pork fat warming together. That smell is the Yucatan in your oven.

7. 7

   Cool and store

   Slide the parchment off the hot sheets onto a wire rack and let the saramuyos cool for at least fifteen minutes before you touch them. They firm up as they cool. Eat them with cafe de olla in the morning or a glass of cold milk in the afternoon. Así se hace y punto.

Chef Tips

• •Use pork lard, not vegetable shortening, not butter. Rendered manteca de cerdo from a Mexican carniceria is best. The hydrogenated tubs at the supermarket will work but the flavor is flatter. If you have access to a Mexican butcher, ask for manteca de cerdo de calidad and you will get the real thing.
• •The lime zest is small but it is the trick. Yucatecan baking uses citrus the way central Mexican baking uses canela. If you can find lima dulce or even a Persian lime, the zest will lift the dough and balance the lard. Do not skip it.
• •Saramuyos keep at room temperature in a tin lined with a cotton cloth for four days. Do not refrigerate them. The cold makes the lard seize and the texture turns waxy. La cocina no es decoracion, es trabajo, but storage is part of the work too.

Advance Preparation

• •The dough can be made one day ahead, wrapped tightly, and refrigerated. Let it come back to cool room temperature for thirty minutes before shaping, otherwise it will crack at the peak.
• •Baked saramuyos keep four days in a tin at room temperature. Their texture is best on day one and day two; by day four they are firmer and want to be dunked in coffee.

Frequently Asked Questions

Nutrition Information

1 serving (about 107g)