more cookies: montecao or montecado cookie recipe
one of the great things that happened to me when i married Di is that i've been exposed to both portuguese AND spanish cuisine from being around her family. they are american as american gets, but there is still a lot of foods from the "old country". i've already posted my mom-in-law's churros recipe. here's another from the family archives
Montecao cookies
ingr.
how:
Mix all ingredients in order, wrap in plastic and refrigerate overnight.
roll out to 1/2" thick. cut with favorite cookie cutters
Bake 375 degF. for approximately 22 minutes. you don't want these to get any darker than a light brown.
when cookies are cool enough to handle (but still HOT), roll in granulated sugar to coat. usually you want to roll them just as soon as they come out of the oven.
enjoy with a cup of coffee or hot cocoa. these are well worth the work.
as an aside, let me recommend an on-line resource for serious home bakers. the King Arthur Flour Baking catalog is a great resource. they will send you a paper catalog that i recommend if for no other reason than all the pictures, tips, and products.
as always, if you try this recipe, or it inspires you to try something different, please let me know how it turned out. i'm always looking for fresh and clever ideas to improve my own cooking skills and recipes.
for a complete list of my online recipes, follow the link here
Montecao cookies
ingr.
- 5 cups of flour, sifted
- 3 Tbs granulated sugar
- 2 Tbs baking powder. Yes, that's tablespoons
- 1 Tbs Lemon Extract
- 1 tsp oil of anise OR 2 Tbs anise extract. use the oil if you can get it. it's way way way way better.
- 2 oz. whiskey
- 1 cup white wine (sautern is most preferable)
- 1 lb lard, melted. hey, i didn't say they were healthy, just very damned good!
how:
Mix all ingredients in order, wrap in plastic and refrigerate overnight.
roll out to 1/2" thick. cut with favorite cookie cutters
Bake 375 degF. for approximately 22 minutes. you don't want these to get any darker than a light brown.
when cookies are cool enough to handle (but still HOT), roll in granulated sugar to coat. usually you want to roll them just as soon as they come out of the oven.
enjoy with a cup of coffee or hot cocoa. these are well worth the work.
as an aside, let me recommend an on-line resource for serious home bakers. the King Arthur Flour Baking catalog is a great resource. they will send you a paper catalog that i recommend if for no other reason than all the pictures, tips, and products.
as always, if you try this recipe, or it inspires you to try something different, please let me know how it turned out. i'm always looking for fresh and clever ideas to improve my own cooking skills and recipes.
for a complete list of my online recipes, follow the link here
posted by bothenook at 19:18
5 Comments:
Jeez, dude, slow down! I'm still on the hens...
Whiskey, lard and wine in a montecao cookie??? Well, well, well... Your version might be good but this is SO NOT a montecao cookie. Montecao cookies originally come from Algeria - some claim their Spanish origin. Truth is that they originate from Oran, a town in Algeria with a strong Spanish colony. Montecao are really oriental cookies - and they are made with NOTHING BUT flour, sugar and fat (be it oil, butter or "saindoux"). When cooked, they are topped with cinammon.
But nonetheless, thanks for this version.
cool. i don't know montecao from asphalt, to be honest with you. this recipe came from my wife's spanish cousin, and that's what she calls them.
by any name, they are damned good.
anonymous expressed some scepticism about the ingredients in the cookie. i did a little checking around, and the only thing i can come up with is that perhaps, perhaps this cookie started out in algeria, but after the moors were kicked out of spain, the spaniards did everything they could to modify their diets to something that expressed their freedom of the islamic dietary restrictions. so lard, booze, wine and whatever makes a lot of sense in this light. yeah, they may have started out as a generic shortbread type cookie, but the spaniards modified it and kept the name.
hey, look at the popularity of Jamon
My great grandma came over from Portugal in the late 1800's and made a cookie similar to this and also called it Mantecado. Her second husband was Puerto Rican so I'm not sure of the origin of the recipe. She would bake them every year around Christmas. She used powdered sugar and not granulated and instead of lemon juice our family recipe calls out vanilla. Whisky and Sauterne are also in the ingredients.
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