Biscochitos I Recipes

BISCOCHITOS TRADITIONAL COOKIES

Steps:

• Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Sift the flour, baking powder and salt into a bowl, and set aside.
• In a large bowl, cream together the lard and 1 1/2 cups sugar until smooth. Mix in the anise seed, and beat until fluffy. Stir in the eggs one at a time. Add the sifted ingredients and brandy, and stir until well blended.
• On a floured surface, roll the dough out to 1/2 or 1/4 inch thickness, and cut into desired shapes using cookie cutters. The traditional is fleur-de-lis. Place cookies onto baking sheets. Mix together the 1/4 cup of sugar and cinnamon; sprinkle over the tops of the cookies.
• Bake for 10 minutes in the preheated oven, or until the bottoms are lightly browned.

BISCOCHITOS

Steps:

• Sift flour, baking powder, and salt. Cream the lard with sugar and anise seed on medium speed. In a separate bowl. beat eggs until light and fluffy. Add beaten eggs to creamed mixture. Mix together well, adding wine to form a stiff-like dough, add more wine, if necessary.
• Refrigerate dough overnight.
• Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
• Remove dough from refrigerator and let stand for a while, until dough is soft enough to roll. Divide dough in quarters and roll to about 1/16 to 1/8-inch thickness. Cut with cookie cutter and place on cookie sheet. Bake for 12 to 15 minutes or until bottom of cookie is golden brown. Meanwhile, mix together the sugar and cinnamon in a bowl. Drop the baked cookies into sugar and cinnamon mixture and set aside to cool.

BISCOCHITOS

Steps:

• 1. Preheat oven to 350°
• 2. Sift together flour, baking powder, salt, and cinnamon and set aside. Note about the flour: I can only get Arrowhead Mills pastry flour in my small town, and I've never tried this cookie with anything else. The texture is exceptional in this recipe, and a lot about biscochitos is the texture. I would recommend it over all-purpose flour. Note for the cinnamon: Most traditional biscochito recipes don't put cinnamon IN the cookie, but dust it on the top with the sugar.
• 3. Cream lard, butter, and sugar together.
• 4. Stir in egg, anise, vanilla, and cognac. Brandy or orange juice are good substitutes for the cognac.
• 5. Stir in dry ingredients to butter and liquids mixture.
• 6. Roll out on a floured surface to 1/4-inch and cut out cookies. My preferred cookie cutter for these has an open top. I press the cutter into the dough and sprinkle the coarse sugar (regular granulated sugar works fine, too) into the top and shake around. Empty the loose sugar out, then push the dough out onto the baking sheet.
• 7. For small cookies, bake for about 10 minutes until the edges just barely start to turn light brown. I use air insulated cookie sheets, so there might need to be an adjustment for regular cookie sheets.

BISCOCHITOS II

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
• Mix together shortening, margarine and sugar with a mixture until well blended. Mix in the rest of the ingredients until smooth.
• Roll out on a floured board to 1/2 or 1/4 inch thickness.
• Cut into desired shapes and place on baking sheets. Bake until golden brown, about 10 - 12 minutes. Garnish as desired or leave plain.