Time to Bake

The island in our kitchen is one of our favorite places to hang out.  Our college kids were home and we decided to do a little baking, so we all gathered round the island and pitched in.  Tricia is from South Texas and comes from a Mexican heritage.  One of the things that is traditionally baked around this time in the Hispanic culture is a special cookie called Pan de Polvo.

Tricia used a recipe that's been handed down in her family to make a batch or two of Pan de Polvo for us. These little cookies are delicious and melt in your mouth.  Polvo means "dust" or "powder" in Spanish and I'm guessing that they are named Bread of Powder or Dust because they melt in your mouth or maybe it is because of the dusting of sugary spices that get sprinkled on top.

Here's what you need to make it:

3 cups flour
1 cup butter
1/4 cup sugar
1 dash salt
1/4 cup anise/cinnamon tea

Blend the softened butter, sugar, and tea until soft.  Gradually add flour & salt to the mixture.  Handle and mix with your hands, then pat down and roll out.

Rolling it out

Then using little cookie cutters, cut out little round cookies out.

Cutting out the cookies

Arrange on a tray and put them in an oven pre-heated to 350 degrees.  You want to leave them in until they are just lightly brown, or about 12 minutes.  

Pop them in the oven

When you take them out of the oven, allow them to cool for just a bit.  While they are still a little warm, you will want to coat them in a sugar and cinnamon mixture.

Piping hot out of the oven

And here they are in a tin, ready to be eaten.  They really do melt in your mouth.  This tin didn't last long at all!

Pan de Polvo!

We also made Gingerbread men & women.  I love the way molasses smells. 

We cut them out.

Put them in the oven and bake them and when they've cooled, Laura Lee started decorating the little guys and gals.

She got pretty creative with some of the decorating...

Now the only thing left to do is eat 'em up.