Easy Spanish Coconut Cookies (Mantecado de coco)

Spaniards eat lots of cookies, especially around Christmas time.  There are  pastas de té (tea cookies),  polvorones (dusties), roscos de vino, and alfajores just to name a few.  They may be flavored with lemon, cinnamon, or coconut.  The crumbly texture of many of these cookies depends on lard, though some of them are butter based, and the anise and sesame flavored tortas de aceite actually have an olive oil base.

  Recently I found a recipe in La Cocina de Mamá: The Great Home Cooking of Spain by Penelope Casas for perrunillas--a sort of cookie I'd never heard of--spiced with cinnamon and lemon zest.

 

As an experiment, I replaced the lard in this recipe with coconut oil. I had read that coconut oil can give an incredible  texture  to cookies, and we're really pleased with the crumbly, melt-in-your-mouth quality of these.  The original recipe called for lemon zest and cinnamon, and I included both here, but the taste of these cookies is mainly of coconut.  The result is very similar to the Spanish cookie called mantecado de coco.

8 ounces of virgin coconut oil

1/2 cup sugar, plus more for sprinkling

1/2 teaspoon of cinnamon

1/2 teasoon of grated lemon zest

1 egg, separated

2 cups of all purpose flour

Stir the coconut oil and sugar with a fork until well blended. Add the cinnamon, lemon zest, the egg yolk, and the flour.  Roll out the dough on floured surface to a thickness of 1/2 inch. Cut the cookies with a two-inch cutter.  (I used  the rim of a small wine glass). 

Line a cookie sheet with foil. Arrange the cookies on it, giving them some space. Brush with beaten egg whites and sprinkle with sugar.

Bake them for 13-15 minutes in a 425 degree oven.  These cookies also come out fantastic (and with even better texture) when baked in a kamado/Big Green Egg.

You could serve these with tea, coffee, or  hot chocolate. They're really good with the spiced dessert wine hipocrás too. Just click "Wine and Other Drinks" on the sidebar for the recipe.

Comments

[Leslie]

Bill, I love the blog!! I just found out about it today. Hopefully Brian will try out some of these recipes. The food all looks so yummy! Can't wait to see you this weekend!

[Bill]

Thanks, Leslie! Looking forward to seeing you and Brian, too.

[Coconut cookies]

Coconut cookies are my favourite dish. Im really happy to visit this blog.http://www.vivamagonline.com/index.php Wanna keep hold to this blog. It looks very yummy and delicious. Ecpecting some more delicious dish. Happy days!!!

[Carolina]

Coconut oil is awesome. I doicsvered it recently too. You might want to consider avoiding oatmeal, potatoes, bread, and rice etc. I have been avoiding all carbs especially sucrose and high fructose corn syrup as well as all partially hydrogenated vegetable oils and I feel and look great. I also lost about 25 lbs in the past 2 months. Thanks for the info. Fructose in sucrose and HFCS is very bad for you. Fats we need are omega 3 (and less so of omega 6) and this coconut oil. Eat it everyday

[Marcelene]

big veggie and fruit juice. A toasted slice of gluten-free multigrain bread, (or a brown rice tortilla), with half of a bell pepper, a handful of nuts.