101 Cookbooks - Mexican Wedding Cookies

What are your favorite recipes for picnic food? (reba)
Scones (Antique Cook)
What kind of local foods do you buy? (Antique Cook)
And the other details. (Ndb7byv)
pad thai (prerna)
Maine Seafood (Antique Cook)

Dona Thomas Stunning Cover. Can't wait to see what's inside.
Decoding Ferran Adria DVD Hosted by Anthony Bourdain.
The Chocolate Connoisseur by Chloe Doutre-Roussel. Heads up chocolate buffs, this one's for you. Those of you who've read Mort Rosenblum's Chocolate will certainly remember Chloe with her custom chocolate pouches sewn into clothing, and climate controlled apartment.
Larousse Gastronomique Recipe Collection Box SetTHE book is now a box of books.
SuperFoods HealthStyle by Steven G. Pratt. Follow-up to best-selling Superfoods Rx.
Vegetable Soups from Deborah Madison's Kitchen. Fresh approaches alongside classics.
Eggs - by Michel Roux. Eggs 120 ways through the eyes of a Michelin-starred chef. (pre-order)
Molecular Gastronomy - by Herve This. The science behind cooking by the first person to hold a doctorate in molecular gastronomy.

Create your own Cookbook (Heidi)
Toast and Smash Spice Blend (Heidi)
Elba's Quinceanera (Heidi)
Triple Chocolate Espresso Bean Cookies (Heidi)
Rajasthani Buttermilk Curry (Heidi)

The Blood Eater (Heather Irwin)
Vegetable Cobbler (Lulu LaMer)
French-Canadian Tourtiere (Heather Irwin)
Cabbage Kimchee (Lulu LaMer)
Apple Crazy (Heather Irwin)
Sausage, apple, goat cheese and fennel raviolis with lemon cream sauce (Heather Irwin)

Larousse Gastronomique: Not for the faint-of-heart, this is a monstrous classic I couldn't do without. A Franco-centric culinary encyclopedia peppered with recipes - this volume is a continuous source of information and inspiration.
Cooking by Hand: Aside from everything else that I will say about this Paul Bertolli book, the pasta primer alone makes it worth the purchase. A serious volume enveloped in the spirit that to be a good cook you must commit, reeeeealy commit, to a journey of understanding every aspect of your ingredients. Learn to look at ingredients from different vantage points (Twelve Ways of Looking at a Tomato), understand them at an elemental level (by grinding your own pasta flour, or making your own balsamico), or think about the place of dessert in a menu (Cooking Backward)...a beautiful book on all fronts.
Rebar: Modern Food Cookbook: Fun and funky, this cookbook has a light-hearted spirit. Emerging from one of Canada's favorite restaurant / juice bars it includes a robust range of customer-favorites (primarily vegetarian) - healthy, flavorful, and crowd-pleasing.
Living Cuisine: Interested in raw/living cuisine? Start here. A beautifully written book written by an author with a unique point of view and encyclopedic knowledge ingredients.
Stephan Pyles's Southwestern Vegetarian: Over the past year this is one of the cookbooks I've enjoyed cooking from the most. Many of the recipes are ambitious and time-intensive, but in every case the end result has been amazing, the process - educating, and the breadth of Southwestern ingredients eye-opening and exciting.
Nigel Slater's Appetite: Great writing voice. Hearty, flavorful, filling recipes. I love reading this book as much as I enjoy cooking from it.
SuperFoods Rx: One of the most important books of the past five years. This book explains the huge health benefits of cooking with ingredients that are known to be nutritional powerhouses in simple, accessible terms - beans, tomatoes, oats, tea, walnuts, yogurt, blueberries, and more.
The Zuni Cafe Cookbook: A beautifully written book highlighting recipes from one of San Francisco's most cherished restaurants. I particularly love the salads and risottos in this book. One of my favorite books to give as a gift.
Patricia Wells' Trattoria: A personal favorite for everyday Italian. I love Patricia's recipes because she never throws in an overzealous amount of ingredients -- this helps the clean, vibrant flavors in her recipes ring through to the final dish. She makes an effort to keep instructions simple whenever possible without catering to the lowest common denominator, all qualities that make this book great for beginner and advanced cooks alike.
Chez Panisse Fruit: A book to turn to when you arrive home from the Farmer's Market loaded up with a sack full of perfect plums or small baskets brimming with summer berries. It is the companion book to the also wonderful Chez Panisse Vegetables, and covers Apples to Strawberries - and all fruits alphabetically in-between including papayas, loquats, and persimmons. On top of a battery of great recipes, this book includes essays on selecting, preparing, and choosing between different varietal of fruits.
Wildwood: Cooking from the Source in the Pacific Northwest: One of my favorite regional cookbooks. Lots of recipes utilizing the wonderful bounty of berries, mushrooms, and apples abundant in the Pacific Northwest.

Mexican Wedding Cookies - Whole Grain

June 22, 2006 | by Heidi

Today's post is going to be short and sweet. Literally. I spent part of last weekend working on a magazine article about the strip of panaderias, Mexican bakeries, lining 24th street here in San Francisco's Mission district. You must choose wisely in a panaderia because they can (and often are) a veritable minefield of bad pastries - pretty but tasteless confections made from uniform doughs shaped and sugared 100 different ways. Some of the sweet breads (pan dulce) are so dry...well, lets just say a chaser of hot chocolate isn't going to help. On the flip side, who knew panaderia's could serve up some of the best bread puddings I've ever had? Moist and filled with the deliciousness of rum-soaked raisins, coconut flakes, or cocoa.

I've always loved Mexican wedding cookies. A tender nutty, butter-based cookie topped with an extravagant blizzard of powdered sugar. The ones I encountered on my most recent panaderia crawl weren't very nutty, and were generally flavorless. I suspect the root of the problem is one of economics. Most of the pastries available in these bakeries are inexpensive. In the quest to keep prices low ($.50-$2) and still turn enough profit to stay in business, I suspect some of the bakeries use cheap, inferior base ingredients and leverage one dough across many products. This all got me thinking about trying my hand at a Mexican wedding cookie made from whole-grain flours, a flavorful sugar, and top notch butter. I wasn't sure if it would retain the spirit of its namesake, but I was curious enough to try.

Tasty and certainly more moist than your standard Mexican wedding cookie, their color gives them away as whole-grain. The beachy brown is a far cry from the bone white versions in the panaderia displays. That being said, they are pretty and rustic in their own right. I wanted to keep the crumb tender, so I used a combination of whole-wheat pastry flour and oat flour - but I suspect 100% ww pastry would work well too.

Whole Grain Mexican Wedding Cookies

1 cup pecans, toasted and cooled to room temperature
1 cup organic unsalted butter
1/2 cup fine grain evaporated cane sugar (I used Alter-Eco brand)
A splash of vanilla extract
A splash of bourbon (optional)
1 1/2 cups whole wheat pastry four
1 cup oat flour
1/2 teaspoon fine grain sea salt
organic powdered sugar for dusting

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees. Puree the pecans in a food processor until they become a fine meal. You don't want to go so far that they become a paste.

In a mixer beat the butter until it becomes creamy, add the sugar and mix until everything is creamy and lighter in color. The vanilla and bourbon go in next followed but the nut meal. Slowly add the flours and salt and mix until a stiff dough is formed (it was warm out today, so stiff might be a stretch). On a piece of plastic wrap pat the dough into a disk 3/4-inch thick. Cover with another piece of plastic wrap and chill in the freezer for 10-15 minutes. This makes for easy cookie stamping.

Use a 1-inch cookie cutter to shape the cookies and place them on a lined baking sheet. Bake for 12 minutes or until the bottoms of the cookies begin to brown ever so slightly. Dust with powdered sugar.

Makes 1 1/2 dozen small cookies.

Comments (20) | category: Sweets

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Bea at La Tartine Gourmande said:

Delicious pictures, as always! Love the cultural note here!

June 22, 2006 03:34 PM

Jigyasa said:

Every step is a gastronomical delight. I like the way you have written, "You don't want to go so far that they become a paste." Well written and...yummy.

June 22, 2006 05:33 PM

ann said:

what magazine will the article be in? I'll have to find it!! I want to know more about Mexican panaderia and need that article!

June 22, 2006 08:48 PM

shuna fish lydon said:

Did you ever get the Mexican Wedding cookies at Primavera in the ferry plaza market. Circa 3 years ago? They were the best I had ever had. The bakr at the time, david, told me that he toasted his flour! In the oven! Like nuts!

He said that it was a Diana Kennedy recipe but I have never found it.

The toasting of the flour not only created a taste but a smooth, velvety texture that turned the taste buds on.

What was that flour you wrote about that you bought at Rainbow? The toasty one? Anyway if I ever want to bake at home again I will try this recipe with that flour.

June 22, 2006 09:49 PM

matt said:

I've accepted the fact that my culture doesn't do pastry terribly well, and ever since I was a wee lad I always wondered why our marranitos, bigotes and conchas have to be so darned dry!

However, I'm right with you on Mexican wedding cookings. Delicious (and a delicious photo!)

June 22, 2006 10:31 PM

Polly said:

I live in San Antonio, Tx. We are loaded with great panaderias and great Tex-Mex food. You should come visit for a S.A. taste treat and some great recipes.
I'll enjoy trying the wedding cookies. My Mom used to make them and they're great!

June 22, 2006 11:51 PM

Rosa said:

Nice cookies and beautiful pictures! I'll once have to make some of those as they look fine...

June 22, 2006 11:51 PM

elizabeth said:

what a change from the ordinary...you have inspired me to broaden my horizons a bit and explore. Gorgeous pictures!

June 23, 2006 02:53 AM

Garrett said:

Yummy, a friend of mine just picked up a bunch of those. She also made me some traditional Mexican dessert breads. I think its the simplicity of the ingredients that really make Mexican sweets just stand apart from anything else.

June 23, 2006 09:34 AM

fatima said:

cool!

June 23, 2006 01:45 PM

Barb said:

I love Mexican bakeries. Some have the best macaroons around, and the pina (pineapple) turnovers are to die for. Some bakeries have tiny jalepeno rolls that melt in your mouth...
And always get the bolillo rolls! Usually 6 for a dollar, and in my opinion better than the torta rolls.
I live near the Mexican border, so I've learned which are the better quality bakeries.

June 23, 2006 03:32 PM

gagatka said:

It seems that mexican wedding cakes are quite like their muchachas:)

June 24, 2006 01:25 AM

Melissa said:

I love bakeries, and this is a good new thing to try. thank you

June 24, 2006 08:47 AM

Diva said:

One of my favorite recipes!

I have been gone from SF for 22 years.. love reading your notes on the city!

do all the shops shape the cookies? I don't remember.. must be old age!

June 24, 2006 10:53 AM

Stéphane said:

This sounds absolutely... non-exotic! I expected something strange coming from the depths of lost Mexican neighbourhoods ;-) This recipe seems quite simple but delicious, and only with noble ingredients full of... respect! Thank you for this recipe... Beautiful picture, as usual ;-)

June 25, 2006 06:58 AM

Fran said:

I had forgotten about these cookies. We got them at a little neighborhood bakery when I was young. I will try this recipe & was also interested in the comment Shuna mentioned about the recipe with the "toasted four". I would be interested in that recipe if anyone finds it. Last week I included a post with a photo of some of the pastries I found at a local bakery. They were quite interesting & delicious.

June 25, 2006 09:45 AM

mickey said:

i have always loved the idea of panaderias, but mostly felt disappointed by the products. either the cookies were too dry and lardy or the turnovers tasted like they were made with canned fruit filling. i went to guatemala in january and loved the pan dulce we found everywhere for breakfast--crispy, crumbly, and almost french in texture, like great sandies. recently i discovered something very surprising at the safeway on webster in san francisco--a case of pan dulce that included the usual fluourescent colored sugared cookies, but also some molasses flavored cinnamony flat cookies shaped like pigs. i buy whatever they have and freeze them. great for dunking.

June 25, 2006 03:25 PM

nishad said:

others

June 26, 2006 06:04 AM

Heidi said:

Shuna, I remember you writing about the toasted flour way-back-when, sounded delicious. I wonder if it came straight from DK or was published somewhere.

That flour was mesquite. I suspect a few pinched of it might be nice in this type of cookie, but not so much that it overpowers the nuts/butter.

Mickey, I tried the molasses pigs at two of the panaderias on 24th, they are very cute. Unfortunately, neither tasted much of molasses and they were both really dry. I wonder if that Safeway is making their own, or sourcing them from outside...

June 26, 2006 07:49 AM

Cristina said:

Mmmmm..my mom used to make these! I got to give her a ring.... :OP

June 26, 2006 04:33 PM

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