Polvorón

Two halves of a polvorón

Polvorón on its paper wrapper

Polvorones and their traditional wrappers.

A polvorón (From polvo, the Spanish word for dust; Cebuano: polboron; Tagalog: pulburon) is a type of heavy, soft and very crumbly Spanish shortbread made of flour, sugar, milk, and nuts. They are produced mostly in Andalusia, where there are about 70 factories in that are part of a syndicate that produces polvorones and mantecados.^[1] Under the name mantecados, these sweets are a traditional preparation of other areas of the Iberian Peninsula as well.^[2]

Polvorones are popular in all Spain and ex-Spanish colonies in Latin America, as well as the Philippines, during the Christmas period. Traditionally they were prepared from September to January but are now available all year round. There are authors who claim a possible Levantine origin, based on a similar sweet known as ghurayba,^[3] but the recipe is too simple and one of the traditional main ingredients in the polvorones is pig fat.

Mantecado

Mantecado is a name for a variety of Spanish shortbreads that includes the polvorón. Often both names are synonymous, but not all mantecados are polvorones. The name mantecado comes from manteca, usually the fat of Iberian pig (cerdo iberico), with which they are made, while the name polvorón is based on the fact that these cakes crumble easily into a kind of dust in the hand or the mouth.

In Puerto Rico "mantecado" is an ice cream and in Spain it may be also the name given to a kind of sweet sherbet.^[4]

Regional variations

Mexico

In Mexico, these are traditionally served at weddings and celebrations. The cookies themselves are small balls usually made with pecans. They are known in the United States as Mexican wedding cookies.

Philippines

In the Philippines, a number of local variants on the traditional polvorón recipe have been made. Well known variants include polvorón with casuy (cashew nut), polvorón with pinipig (beaten young green rice, similar to rice crispies) and polvorón with moringa leaves. Strawberry, chocolate and cookies-and-cream polvorón also exist.

Spain

These days there are options different from pig fat, like cow fat, as well as vegetarian polvorones and mantecados made with olive oil.

United States

Sometimes called Pan de Polvo, it is made with anise in the south Texas region.

References

1. ^ Spanish mantecado: sweet treat beats economic downturn
2. ^ Herrera del Duque, Extremadura - Gastronomía
3. ^ Salloum, H. 2007. Classic Vegetarian Cooking from the Middle East and North Africa. Toronto: Interlink.
4. ^ Helado mantecado