Grain Free Mantecados Recipe: Spanish Christmas Cookies
Smooth and silky like their traditional counterparts, these gluten-free and grain-free mantecados and polvorones are an allergy-friendly Christmas treat.
Lightly toast the tapioca flour in a pan over medium heat. Tapioca flour is trickier to toast than wheat flour and tends to burn rather than brown, so don't try too hard to achieve a golden brown. Just toast it very lightly and set it aside to cool.
Toast the almond flour in a little bit of the lard until it has reached a medium golden brown color and remove it from the heat to cool.
Sift the tapioca flour and powdered sugar into a bowl and add to the bowl the toasted almond flour, the cinnamon and the lard. By sifting the tapioca flour, you will remove any hard pieces that may have formed when cooking the flour on the stove.
Use your hands to combine well all of the ingredients. You want the mixture to be crumbly, but you also want it to hold together when you try to press it into a ball. You can add a little more lard, but be careful; adding too much may result in a hard, crispy cookie rather than a soft, crumbly one.
Press the mixture into a ball and chill it in the fridge for around 20 minutes.
Preheat the oven to 180ºC/350ºF.
Using a rolling pin, roll sections of the mixture into a flat sheet that is around 1/2 inch wide.
Using simple shaped cookie cutters, preferably round or oval, cut the dough into simple shapes and place them onto a baking sheet lined with parchment paper.
If you want to decorate these with sesame seeds or something similar, sprinkle some on top of the cookies and lightly press them down into place.
Bake for 12-15 minutes. Unlike the traditional counterparts, they don't have a tendency to turn golden brown on the edges. That is OK! Remove them from the oven anyway after 15 minutes.
Allow them to fully cool before serving them. You can sprinkle them with powdered sugar and cal also wrap them in paper for giving to friends.