Spanish-style Christmas cookies (Polvorones-inspired) // Christmas food
🌱😋🎄Christmas is just around the corner, it is officially time to bake Grandma Sita’s holiday plant-based treats. Discover Spanish-style Christmas cookies made with toasted flour have a nutty flavor and a smooth, silky texture, and will crumble to dust in your mouth when you eat them!
This plant-based recipe is inspired by “Polvorones” one of the most popular Spanish Christmas cookies. “Polvorones” are named after “polvo”, the Spanish word for powder which makes sense because of their fantastic crumbly texture and the generous dusting of powdered sugar on top.
Easy delicious, and budget-friendly plant-based cookies are not too sweet and made with a handful of simple flavorful ingredients, a wonderful treat to add to your dessert tray to enjoy all festive season long.
INGREDIENTS *approx. 2 baking trays.
400g all-purpose flour (toasted)
200g veggie oil or vegan butter (at room temperature)
150g icing unrefined sugar
1 tsp ground cinnamon (optional)
A bunch of sesame seeds (optional)
Icing sugar for dusting
METHOD
1. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper and preheat your oven to 180°C for around 30 minutes.
2. Put all-purpose flour in a pan over medium-high heat, whisking constantly.
3. Cook for around ten minutes until the flour is dark golden brown. Let it cool completely before sifting the toasted flour. Sifting helps break up any lumps or clumps in flour.
4. Add the toasted flour, ground cinnamon (optional), sesame seeds (optional), veggie oil or vegan butter at room temperature, and icing sugar to a large mixing bowl.
5. Mix all ingredients and knead the dough for around 10 minutes into the shape of a ball. This dough can be crumbly and difficult to handle.
6. Scoop small balls of dough, roll them in your hands, place them on the baking sheet, and use the bottom of a glass to flatten them slightly.
7. Reduce the oven temperature to 150°C. Bake for about 25-30 minutes, until the edges turn golden brown.
8. Let them completely cool on the baking tray before moving them or they might break apart. Dust with powdered sugar before serving. Bon appetite!
💚 Grandma Sita’s tips::
*In this recipe, substituting vegan butter for vegetable oil works perfectly. You can use extra virgin olive oil, popular in Spanish cuisine, incredibly healthy, and adds a delicious flavor to baked goods.
*The dough is the trickiest part of the recipe. Once the flour has absorbed the oil or butter, it’s best to work with your hands. The dough should have a crumbly texture, moist but crumbly if you stir it with your fingers. It’s similar to making shortcrust pastry, you want it to stay compact when you squeeze it. The dough can be stored in the refrigerator for up to 5 days or frozen for up to 1 month.
*Store these delicious crumbled cookies in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 5 days.
*In Spain, you can find polvorones individually wrapped in special paper. If you’d like to give them as a gift, you can look for colorful food-safe baking paper to wrap these cookies in.
📗Polvorones and mantecados originated in Spain, they first appeared in Andalucía in the 16th Century. These cookies are gaining more and more popularity worldwide, but they’re especially popular in places like Mexico, Cuba, and the Phillippines. There is no standard recipe, each region and family twitches it a bit.
🌍 It is becoming more popular to incorporate plant-based meals into festive celebrations worldwide. Each of us can take action at home to reduce waste and transition our diets to be more planet-friendly before, during, and after the Christmas season. Every bit counts. Happy Holidays!