Mexican Wedding Cookies Biscochitos Food

BISCOCHITOS

Steps:

• Sift flour, baking powder, and salt. Cream the lard with sugar and anise seed on medium speed. In a separate bowl. beat eggs until light and fluffy. Add beaten eggs to creamed mixture. Mix together well, adding wine to form a stiff-like dough, add more wine, if necessary.
• Refrigerate dough overnight.
• Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
• Remove dough from refrigerator and let stand for a while, until dough is soft enough to roll. Divide dough in quarters and roll to about 1/16 to 1/8-inch thickness. Cut with cookie cutter and place on cookie sheet. Bake for 12 to 15 minutes or until bottom of cookie is golden brown. Meanwhile, mix together the sugar and cinnamon in a bowl. Drop the baked cookies into sugar and cinnamon mixture and set aside to cool.

BISCOCHITOS TRADITIONAL COOKIES

Steps:

• Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Sift the flour, baking powder and salt into a bowl, and set aside.
• In a large bowl, cream together the lard and 1 1/2 cups sugar until smooth. Mix in the anise seed, and beat until fluffy. Stir in the eggs one at a time. Add the sifted ingredients and brandy, and stir until well blended.
• On a floured surface, roll the dough out to 1/2 or 1/4 inch thickness, and cut into desired shapes using cookie cutters. The traditional is fleur-de-lis. Place cookies onto baking sheets. Mix together the 1/4 cup of sugar and cinnamon; sprinkle over the tops of the cookies.
• Bake for 10 minutes in the preheated oven, or until the bottoms are lightly browned.

BIZCOCHITOS (MEXICAN ANISE COOKIES)

Steps:

• Cream margarine; gradually add 3/4 cup sugar, beating at medium speed of a mixer until light and fluffy. Add egg and vanilla; beat well. Combine cake flour, aniseed, baking powder, and salt; add to creamed mixture, stirring until well-blended. Divide dough in half; shape each portion into a ball, and wrap each in plastic wrap. Freeze 40 minutes.
• Preheat oven to 350 d F. Remove one portion of dough from freezer; remove plastic wrap. Roll dough to a 1/8-inch thickness on a lightly floured surface; cut with a 2-inch round cutter. Place on baking sheets. Combine 2 teaspoons sugar and cinnamon; sprinkle over cookies. Bake at 350 d F for 10 minutes. Remove from baking sheets immediately; cool on wire racks. Repeat procedure with remaining portion of dough. Store in an airtight container.
• Note: Time does not include chill time of dough.

BIZCOCHOS (MEXICAN HOLIDAY COOKIES)

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
• Beat the lard until creamy.
• Mix the wine or fruit juice with 1 cup of sugar, 1 tablespoon cinnamon and anise seeds; add to lard and mix with a wooden spoon.
• Add the egg yolks; mixing well.
• Add enough flour to make soft dough; roll out to 1/2-inch thick and cut in desired shapes and place on greased cookie sheet.
• Bake 15 minutes; checking often to prevent burning.
• Mix the remaining 1 cup of sugar and 4 teaspoons cinnamon; dredge cookies in the cinnamon sugar mixture while still warm.

POLVORONES (MEXICAN WEDDING COOKIES)

Steps:

• Put 1/2 cup of the walnuts and the salt in a food processor and pulse until finely ground. Roughly chop the remaining 1 cup walnuts.
• Position two oven racks in the upper and lower thirds of the oven and preheat to 325 degrees F.
• Beat the butter in a large bowl with an electric mixer on medium-high speed until smooth, 2 to 3 minutes. Add the granulated sugar and beat until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Scrape down the sides of the bowl. Beat in the flour, then the ground and chopped walnuts. Divide the dough in half, forming each half into a ball. Wrap separately in plastic and chill until cold, about 30 minutes.
• Put the confectioners' sugar in a large bowl.
• Working with half of the chilled dough at a time and keeping the rest in the fridge, roll the dough by 2 teaspoonfuls between your palms into balls. Arrange the balls on a large baking sheet, spacing them 1/2 inch apart.
• Bake the cookies until golden brown on the bottom and just pale golden on top, about 18 minutes. Cool the cookies for 5 minutes on the baking sheet. Toss the warm cookies in the powdered sugar. Transfer the sugar-coated cookies to a rack to cool completely. The cookies can be prepared up to 2 days ahead. Once cooled, store them in an airtight container. You need to make sure they are cooled before storing them, otherwise they will get soggy. Sift additional powdered sugar and cinnamon over the cookies if desired before serving.

MEXICAN WEDDING COOKIES

Steps:

• In a medium bowl, cream the butter and sugar. Stir in vanilla and water. Add the flour and almonds, mix until blended. Cover and chill for 3 hours.
• Preheat oven to 325 degrees.
• Shape dough into balls or crescents. Place on an unprepared cookie sheet and bake for 15 to 20 minutes in the preheated oven. Remove from pan to cool on wire racks. When cookies are cool, roll in confectioners' sugar. Store at room temperature in an airtight container.

BISCOCHITOS

Steps:

• Sift flour with baking powder and salt.
• Cream the shortening with 1½ cups sugar and anise seeds until fluffy.
• Beat in eggs one at a time.
• Mix in flour and brandy until well blended.
• Turn dough out on a floured board and pat or roll to ¼- or ½-inch thickness; cut into shapes (the fleur-de-lys shape is traditional).
• Dust with a mixture of ¼ cup sugar and 1 tsp cinnamon.
• Bake at 350°F (180°C) for 10 to 12 minutes or until golden brown.