Mexican Dessert Recipes
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Mexican Piloncillo Cookies
Piloncillo, which is also known as panocha, chanaca, papelon, empanizao, atado dulce, or rapadura, is an unrefined type of sugar, made by boiling and evaporating sugarcane juice. Colombia produces 1.4 million tons of this product every year. It is also made in Bolivia, Panama, Peru, Venezuela, Guatemala, Ecuador, and Mexico. Piloncillo is made in cones, cubes or disk shapes and it is golden brown in color. It contains calcium, ascorbic acid, iron and proteins as well as sugar. Piloncillo is used to make aguapanela, which is a very popular Colombian beverage. It is also used to make desserts and as a sweetener.
In Mexico, piloncillo comes in cone-shaped packages. Capirotada, flan, atole, and champurrado are other Mexican desserts and beverages, which use piloncillo. You can get plain piloncillo and piloncillo made with chocolate, anise, or cayenne flavors. The biggest, heaviest piloncillo ever made measure ten feet and twenty inches across and weighed one thousand five hundred and seventy six pounds. It took ninety people twenty eight hours to make this piloncillo and seventy tons of sugar was used.
In the following galletas de piloncillo recipe, piloncillo is combined with cinnamon, orange, butter and more to make light and crumbly cookies. Serve these cookies warm from the oven or cold. They are tasty with a cup of champurrado or coffee and they also make a tasty dessert after dinner. Piloncillo cookies are very popular in Mexico and they are available in all Mexican bakeries. Piloncillo has a rich flavor. If you cannot get it where you are, try making these cookies with dark brown sugar instead, adding a touch of molasses for the piloncillo-like flavor.
Galletas de Piloncillo
Ingredients -
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 stick of cinnamon
Zest from 1 orange
1 cone piloncillo
1 cup butter or lard
3 cups flour
2 cups water
Preparation:
Boil the piloncillo with the orange zest and cinnamon in the water until you get a thick liquid.
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Strain the piloncillo liquid through a sieve.
Sift the baking powder with the flour and fold in the butter or lard.
Add the piloncillo liquid and mix until you get a dough.
Roll out the dough on a lightly floured board using a rolling pin.
Roll it out quite thin.
Use a cookie cutter to cut 3 inch wide cookies, then spray some water over them and arrange them on cookie sheets.
Bake for 20 minutes or until they are golden brown and firm.
(Makes 15)
Photo Description:
All cookies are delicious but these piloncillo cookies are especially delicious. The unmistakable flavor of piloncillo shines through and the orange zest adds a fruitiness to the flavor. These cookies are medium to dark brown, because of the piloncillo, and really crumbly. They are great served warm from the oven but they will keep for several days in an airtight container. Piloncillo cookies are a favorite in Mexican households and if you can get some piloncillo from a Mexican grocery store, you might like to try making your own.
