First I want to apologize because I won’t be able to make all the Mexican Christmas recipes I wanted to before Christmas. Money has been a little tight on my side and as much as I’d like to prepare big dinners this season I just won’t be able to. I will post some recipes I’ve tried in the past weeks and as soon as things get better and I can afford a new camera I will be back to creating some new things in my kitchen.

I was able, however, to make these delicious polvorones (a.k.a. Mexican wedding cookies), a recipe my mom taught me and I changed a little this time to give it an orange flavor.

Polvorones de Naranja
Makes 2 dozens

For this recipe you will need:

• ½ cup butter, room temperature
• ½ cup lard
• ½ cup powder sugar
• ½ cup roasted pecans, chopped
• 2 cups flour
• 1 large orange
• 1 tsp vanilla
• ¼ tsp salt

Preparation:

1. With a grater peel the orange to obtain about 1 TBSP of orange zest.
2. Cream butter, lard and powder sugar until fluffy.
3. Add vanilla, salt, orange zest and the juice of the same orange to the mix.
4. Add flour a little at a time and chopped pecans.
5. Continue mixing until the dough gets stiff. Be careful if you are using a hand mixer since the dough can get really stiff and it might be difficult to keep the mixer steady.
6. Cover the dough and refrigerate for 2 hours.
7. Preheat oven to 350°F (175° C)
8. Grease cookie sheets.
9. Shape dough into 1-inch balls and place them on baking sheet.
10. Bake for 15 minutes, or until the edges are lightly brown.
11. Let them cool for about 5 minutes and roll them in powder sugar. The best way to do this and avoid a big mess is to put 1 cup of powder sugar and the cookies in a large Tupperware container, close it tight and flip it a couple of times.
12. Let cookies cool on wire racks.
13. Enjoy