Polvorones Con Limon- Traditional Spanish Christmas Cookies

Step 1

How to prepare the flour before baking:

Step 2

Preheat oven to 300F/150C. Place the all-purpose flour on a baking tray and dry it in the oven at 300F for 30 minutes. Do the same thing with the almond flour, but keep it in the oven at 300F only for 20 minutes.

Step 3

Let the flour cool completely. The flour might look clumpy, but this is how it should be.

Step 4

Sift both flours together with the cinnamon and set aside.

Step 5

How to make the polvorones cookies:

Step 6

Lard or butter should be at room temperature.

Step 7

Cream together lard or butter with the powder sugar. You can do it by hand or with a mixer.

Step 8

Add the mixture of all-purpose flour and almond flour over the lard and sugar.

Step 9

Add the lemon zest and juice.

Step 10

Mix until you have crumbly dough. Do not overmix.

Step 11

Place the dough on a floured surface and bring it together into the shape of a ball. Wrap it in plastic foil and refrigerate it for an hour.

Step 12

Preheat oven to 400F/200C.

Step 13

Cover cookie trays with parchment paper.

Step 14

On a lightly floured surface, roll the dough about 0.5inch/1.5cm thick.

Step 15

Use a cookie cutter or a round glass(approx. 1.4inch diameter or 3.5 cm)and cut the dough.

Step 16

Grab them with a spatula and place them on the cookie tray. Bake at 400F/200C for no more than 10 minutes. Remove from the oven and let them cool on the tray.

Step 17

TIP: Do not try to remove the hot cookies from the tray as they are very crumbly. When cool, the cookies keep their shape. Also, do not keep them in the oven for more than 10 minutes. The cookies will dry out and change the texture.

Step 18

When the cookies are completely cool, dust them with powder sugar and wrap them in a special paper for polvorones or wax paper cut in 7.4x6.7 inches(19x17cm).

Step 19

The polvorones last a long time if kept in dry, cool places. They make great gifts for the holidays.