Polvorones
Ingredients:
500 g flour
125 g pork lard
75 g icing sugar (or very fine caster sugar)
1 dessertspoon of ground cinnamon *
Grated rind of 1 lemon and a few drops of the juice.
In a very hot oven, toast the flour briefly, covered with greaseproof paper. Spread the flour out well and while it is being baked stir it now and then with a wooden spoon so that it dries out uniformly. Just when it starts to lose its white colour, and before it darkens, remove it from the oven and leave it to cool. When cold pass it through a sieve.
Put 250 g of this flour in a bowl and make a hollow in the centre into which put the lard, 50 g of the sugar, the cinnamon, the lemon rind and the lemon juice. Mix this well with finger tips but without kneading it. Make it into a ball of dough which should be wrapped in a cloth and left to rest somewhere cool for an hour. To make it into the shape of polvorones, first scatter the table with the left-over toasted flour. Then roll out the ball of dough with a rolling pin until it is about as thick as a finger. Cut rounds of about 5 cm diameter, with a pastry cutter. Put on a slightly damp baking tray and cook in a cool oven.
When ready, remove from baking tray and allow to cool. Then scatter the remaining icing sugar over them Finally wrap them up in tissue paper carefully, because polvorones are very fragile.
Photograph (c)2008 Isabel González Turmo
Polvorones
* These polvorones are cinnamon polvorones, but one can also make polvorones with almonds, substituting the cinnamon with 300 g of ground almonds, with just a few slightly larger chips to crunch. Or you can substitute the cinnamon with chocolate, orange or lemon, as you wish.
