Mexican Almond Cookies
Photography Aaron McLean.
These popular cookies are found throughout Mexico in the local ‘panadería’ (bakery). The combination of butter and vegetable shortening makes them the ultimate melt-in-the mouth cookie.
INGREDIENTS
½ cup ground almonds
2 cups plain flour
½ teaspoon sea salt
¾ cup icing sugar
100 grams butter, diced and chilled
100 gram vegetable shortening
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup icing sugar extra for rolling
METHOD
Preheat the oven to 160˚C.
Put the almonds, flour, salt and icing sugar in a food processor and pulse to combine. Add the butter and vegetable shortening and pulse until the mixture resembles coarse breadcrumbs.
Whisk the egg and vanilla together and pour into the flour mixture. Pulse until the mixture just comes together to form a soft dough. Don’t worry if there are little pieces of butter or shortening in the dough, as that’s what it should look like.
Tip onto the bench and form the dough into a log. Pinch off pieces then quickly roll with the palms of your hands to make large marble-sized cookies. You should get about 30.
Place on a lined baking tray and if the dough is quite soft, place in the fridge for 10 minutes to firm up.
Bake for 12-14 minutes until lightly golden, turning the tray for even colouring if needed.
Cool on the tray for 10 minutes then dust with a ¼ cup of the icing sugar, moving the cookies around to coat the bases as well. Leave for 30 minutes. Put the remaining icing sugar in a dish and toss each cookie to coat thoroughly. Makes about 30
Pantry note: Kremelta vegetable shortening is available in tubs in the baking section at supermarkets.
Keep up to date with
dish weekly recipes,
food news, and events.
Related Content
latest issue:
127
In Dream Escape, we journey from Japan and Morocco to Italy, India and beyond, sharing recipes inspired by travel, heritage and comfort. We celebrate the champions of the Outstanding Food Producer Awards, explore the stories and recipes of chefs shaped by their cultural roots, and warm up with everything from West African soups and slow-braised lamb to porchetta, butter chicken and beef noodle soup. Alongside destination menus, Scandinavian sweets and cosy pub classics, Chrisanne Terblanche shares her favourite street-side dining spots in Bangkok, while Yvonne Lorkin explores red wine varietals. This issue, we invite you to slow down, turn the pages and escape through food.