Author Notes
What we call “Mexican wedding cookies” are actually called polvorones in Latin America, and they’re not reserved for weddings; they’re consumed year-round. How they came to be called Mexican wedding cookies is beyond me. Regardless, they’re delicious no matter when you eat them.
Traditionally made with butter, flour, powdered sugar and ground pecans, I made my own with vegan margarine (Earth Balance), and swapped out the pecans for almonds… since that’s what I had in the house :)
This recipe and more at www.thedailyveg.com —Melissa Stanger
Ingredients
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1/2 cup
vegan margarine
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1/2 cup
vegetable shortening
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2 teaspoons
vanilla extract
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1/4 teaspoon
salt
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2/3 cup
powdered sugar (plus more for dusting)
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2 cups
all-purpose flour
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3/4 cup
ground almonds
Directions
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In a large bowl, beat the margarine and shortening together until fluffy and smooth. Then beat in the the vanilla and salt. It’s best to use electric beaters for this, but to be perfectly honest, I don’t own any (yet)! So I used a fork and some elbow grease, and it still came out great :)
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Mix in the powdered sugar a little at a time. Do the same with the flour and ground almonds.
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Now preheat your oven to 325 degrees Fahrenheit, and continue mixing all the ingredients together for another 3 to 5 minutes until a soft, somewhat-crumbly dough forms. To me it resembles shortbread cookie dough, which makes sense, given that we’re using shortening.
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Start rolling the dough into little balls with your hands, about the size of small golf balls, and line them up on a lined baking sheet about an inch and a half apart. These won’t spread out too much, but it’s good to give them room to breathe.
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Bake for 14 to 16 minutes, until you see them puff up and the bottoms start to turn golden brown. Be careful when looking for color; the cookies themselves don’t brown up too much, so they can easily overbake if you don’t watch them.
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Let them cool, and in the meantime, get out your powdered sugar. When the cookies are cool enough that the powdered sugar won’t gob up on them, give them a generous dusting all over. Then–just enjoy them!
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