Mexican Shortbread Recipes

Steps:

• Combine butter and sugar in a large bowl; beat with an electric mixer until smooth and creamy, about 2 minutes. Add vanilla extract, orange juice, water, and orange zest; beat until blended. Add flour and pecans and mix with a spoon until blended but crumbly. Cover and place in the refrigerator until chilled, 3 hours to overnight.
• Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F (165 degrees C).
• Scoop up about a golf-ball-size of dough and press together into a ball. Flatten and smooth the edges, making sure the dough is firm and not flaky or crumbly, or else cookies will not rise or expand as they bake. Place on an ungreased cookie sheet. Repeat with the rest of the dough.
• Bake in the preheated oven until edges are golden, 15 to 20 minutes. Cool on the baking sheet for 1 minute before removing to a wire rack to cool, 8 to 10 minutes more.
• Sift some confectioners' sugar into a small bowl. Drop a cookie into the sugar, shake the bowl, flip the cookie, and agitate again to cover in sugar. Repeat with remaining cookies, adding more sugar as necessary.

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 325 degrees.
• Cream margarine and sugar together in bowl. Stir in flour, cornmeal, cinnamon and salt. Pat dough into 8-inch pie pan. Bake until golden, about 10 minutes.
• Meanwhile, melt chocolates with milk in double boiler. Stir until smooth.
• When shortbread is done, immediately score into 8 sections with knife while shortbread is still hot.
• Drizzle melted chocolate on top, allow to cool before cutting into wedges.

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
• Cut shortening into flour until mixture resemble coarse corn meal.
• Add hot cinnamon and 1/4 cup anise tea and kneed dough until smooth.
• This will take a while.
• Roll dough into 1 inch diameter logs about 12 inch long.
• Cut logs into 1/4 in thick circles.
• Place close together on cookie sheet, but not touching.
• They spread very little to not at all.
• Bake for 15 to 20 minutes, or until bottom side of cookie become lightly golden brown, and when cookie is cut in half, it looks baked all the way through.
• Combine granulated sugar and ground cinnamon.
• While cookies are still hot, roll each one in sugar and cinnamon coating with a fork until well coated.
• Place the cookies on cooling rack and cool completely.

Steps:

• Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Spread the almonds and the flour on separate baking sheets. Place both in the oven and bake until the almonds are toasted and the flour is a deep creamy color, about 12 to 15 minutes, stirring the flour and the almonds once. Set aside to cool completely.
• Place the almonds and the sugar in a food processor and process until the nuts are ground. Sift the flour with the salt and baking powder into a large mixing bowl. Stir in the almond mixture. Add the butter and shortening, working it in with your fingers until you have a crumbly dough.
• Press the dough together, flatten and wrap in plastic wrap. Refrigerate for 2 hours.
• Butter a cookie sheet well. Unwrap the dough and place it on top of the plastic wrap; cover it with another sheet of plastic wrap. Using a rolling pin, roll the dough out between the sheets of plastic with quick, short movements until it is about 1/4 inch thick; it will be crumbly around the edges.
• Using a cookie cutter 2 inches in diameter, cut out as many cookies as you can. Transfer them to the cookie sheet with a spatula, being very careful or they will break apart. Gather up the remaining dough and roll out and cut out more cookies. Repeat until all of the dough has been used.
• Bake the cookies on the top rack of the oven until they are pale golden in color, about 10 to 15 minutes. Sift the confectioners' sugar over them and set them aside to cool before removing them from the cookie sheet. Store the cookies in an airtight container.

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 325°F. Grind pepitas in coffee grinder or blender until coarsely ground. Set aside. Stir chocolate in top of double boiler set over simmering water until melted and smooth. Transfer chocolate to large bowl. Cool slightly.
• Add butter, 1/2 cup sugar, ground cinnamon and salt to melted chocolate. Using electric mixer, beat until well blended. Add flour and ground pepitas and stir until just blended.
• Roll out dough on floured surface to -inch thickness. Using 3-inch star cookie cutter dipped into flour, cut out cookies. Transfer cookies to ungreased baking sheets, spacing 1 inch apart. Reroll dough scraps; cut out additional cookies and place on baking sheets. Brush cookies with egg white; sprinkle with remaining 2 tablespoons sugar. Bake cookies until just firm to touch, about 18 minutes. Cool 5 minutes on baking sheets. Transfer to rack; cool.