Polvorones are popular Spanish Christmas cookies featuring a crumbly, melt-in-your-mouth texture. They're made with toasted flour and almond meal, yielding the perfect nutty and toasty flavor profile to warm you up from the inside out. Make them for the winter holidays or any time you want a tasty treat!
Although polvorones are mostly produced in the Andalusia region of Spain, they are incredibly popular throughout the Iberian Peninsula, in Latin America, and even the Philippines. Note that other versions made throughout the world, namely Mexican polvorones, are different from the Spanish ones you'll find here.
The name comes from the word polvo which means powder in Spanish, and comes from the delicate texture of these shortbread cookies. They can easily fall apart into dust/powder as you eat them.
Polvorones are part of the mantecado family of lard-based cookies. The name mantecado comes from the word manteca which means lard in Spanish. Although their original and most traditional composition uses melted lard as the fat component, they are often made with butter instead making them appropriate for vegetarians as well.
Polvorones can be made with different flavors such as almond, lemon, coconut, cocoa, and cinnamon. Almond flavor, or polvorones de almendra, is the most popular variation. You can purchase these crumbly shortbread cookies commercially, typically individually wrapped like hard candies, or make them yourself at home.
Commercially, they are usually shaped into ovals instead of circles, but for the home baker it's easier to get uniform cookies using a round cutter. You could try shaping oblong polvorones by hand instead, but using a uniform cutter is much easier.
Ingredient notes
- All-Purpose Flour: Polvorones are made with toasted flour. You'll need to be careful and closely monitor your flour as it toasts in the oven so it doesn't burn.
- Almond Meal: Traditionally almonds are toasted and then ground into toasted almond flour or almond meal, but as a shortcut I used commercially purchased almond meal which I toast along with the all-purpose flour to achieve the same results.
- Butter: Although lard is the traditional fat component in polvorones, using unsalted butter is typically easier for most bakers and yields vegetarian cookies. You can even use vegetable shortening if you want these cookies to be vegan.
- Sugar: Using powdered sugar instead of granulated sugar yields the incredibly tender, melt-in-your-mouth texture you want in polvorones.
How to make it
Preheat the oven to 350ºF (180ºC). Combine flour and almond meal and spread on a baking sheet. Toast the mixture in the oven for about 20 minutes. Cool to room temperature.
Beat together room temperature butter with confectioners' sugar and cinnamon until smooth and creamy.
Add the cooled flour and almond meal mixture and combine until you have a cohesive but crumbly dough.
The dough should hold together if you press it together, but should easily fall apart.
If the dough is excessively crumbly, add a little bit of cold water (similar to making pie dough) one tablespoon at a time, combining until it can easily be pressed together into a cohesive dough.
I know this is not traditional, but I find it really helps make the dough a bit easier to handle.
Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and set aside. Transfer the dough to a clean work surface.
Carefully roll out or pat the dough to a thickness of ½-inch. If you want to roll it, place a piece of parchment paper over the top. I pat the dough flat by hand kind of like I do with scones.
Cut the dough into circles using a round cutter, about 2 inches in diameter.
Carefully transfer the cut cookies onto the prepared baking sheet. Reroll/pat the scraps carefully and repeat by cutting more cookies.
Bake for 15 to 20 minutes or until the edges turn just barely golden brown and feel firm to the touch. Remove from the oven and cool completely on the baking sheet.
Dust the tops of the cooled polvorones with powdered sugar and serve.
Please scroll to the bottom of the post for the full recipe (in a printable recipe card) including ingredient amounts and detailed instructions.
Expert tips
You only want to bake polvorones long enough so they get firm and crisp on the outside but remain soft and crumbly on the inside.
Use a digital scale to weigh your ingredients for the best results. Although I include volume measurements, the way people measure ingredients in measuring cups can vary, and the results may not always be the same.
Polvorones don't rise or expand, so you don't need to spread them far apart on the baking sheet. Just arrange them about 1-inch from each other to allow them to bake evenly around all the edges.
For the last bit of dough scraps after cutting out my last two cookies, I placed the scraps into the round cutter (from the top) and then pressed it flat with my fingers to get one last cookie! No dough goes to waste this way.
Other recipes you may like
- Vanillekipferl (Austrian Vanilla Crescent Cookies)
- Heidesand (German Brown Butter Shortbread Cookies)
- Pfeffernüsse (Iced German Spice Cookies)
- Basler Läckerli / Leckerli (Swiss Spiced Cookie Bars)
- Perníčky (Czech Gingerbread Cookies)
- Chocolate-Dipped Peppermint Biscotti
- Pain d'Épices (Bouchon Bakery French Gingerbread Loaf)
- Torrijas (Spanish-Style French Toast)
Tried this recipe? Please leave a star ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ rating in the recipe card below and/or a review in the comments section further down the page. You can also follow me on social media on Facebook, Instagram, and Pinterest!
Polvorónes (Spanish Toasted Flour and Almond Shortbread Cookies)
Ingredients
- 225 grams (1 ¾ cups) all-purpose flour
- 60 grams (¾ cup) almond meal, almond flour, or ground almonds
- 113 grams (1 stick) unsalted butter room temperature
- 115 grams (1 cup) confectioners' (powdered) sugar plus more for decoration
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350ºF (180ºC). Combine the flour and almond meal and spread on a baking sheet. Toast the mixture in the oven for about 20 minutes, stirring a couple times so it toasts evenly (the amount of time will really depend on the size of your baking sheet, gas vs electric oven, etc). Keep a close eye so it doesn't burn. It should be just lightly toasted and somewhat tan in color. The toasty fragrance will be the strongest indicator. Remove from the oven and cool to room temperature.
- In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat together the room temperature butter with the confectioners' sugar and cinnamon until smooth and creamy. Start on low speed and then carefully ramp it up to avoid making a mess of confectioners' sugar.
- Add the cooled flour and almond meal mixture and combine until you have a cohesive but crumbly dough. The dough should hold together if you press it together, but should easily fall apart. If the dough is excessively sandy/crumbly, you can add a little bit of cold water (similar to how you bind pie dough together) one tablespoon at a time and combine until it's still crumbly but can easily be pressed together into a cohesive dough. This is not traditional, but I find it really helps make the dough a bit easier to handle.
- Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and set aside. Remove the dough from the mixer bowl and transfer to a clean work surface. You can put parchment paper on top of the work surface if you want to ensure it doesn't stick, though I didn't use one and my dough was easy to wiggle free any time it started to feel stuck.
- Carefully roll out or pat the dough to a thickness of ½-inch. If you want to roll it, place a piece of parchment paper over the top so it doesn't crumble or stick to the roller. I pat the dough by hand kind of like I do with scones. Just make sure to pat it out as evenly as possible.
- Cut the dough into circles using a round cutter, about 2 inches in diameter. Carefully transfer the cut cookies either using a small spatula or transfer them directly inside the cutter and then use your finger to gently poke the dough free from the cutter onto the prepared baking sheet (this is what I do). Reroll/pat the scraps carefully and repeat by cutting more cookies.
- Bake the cookies for 15 to 20 minutes or until the edges turn just barely golden brown and feel firm to the touch. Remove from the oven and cool completely on the baking sheet. Moving them while they're hot could cause them to crumble.
- Dust the tops of the cooled cookies with powdered sugar and serve.
Notes
- Although lard is the traditional fat component in polvorones, using unsalted butter is typically easier for most bakers and yields vegetarian cookies. You can even use vegetable shortening if you want these cookies to be vegan.
- Use a digital scale to weigh your ingredients for the best results. Although I include volume measurements, the way people measure ingredients in measuring cups can vary, and the results may not always be the same.
- These cookies don't rise or expand, so you don't need to spread them far apart on the baking sheet. Just arrange them about 1-inch from each other to allow them to bake evenly around all the edges.
Nutrition
*All nutritional information is based on third-party calculations and should be considered estimates. Actual nutritional content will vary with brands used, measuring methods, portion sizes and more.*
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