Mexican Orange Sugar Cookies Recipe: Polvorones de Naranja

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Mexican Orange Sugar Cookies are so delicious, yet so easy to whip up that you’ll want to make them all the time.

These traditional Mexican sugar cookies make lovely ‘welcome to the neighborhood’ gifts for new neighbors.

They’d also make ideal Christmas presents for the mailman, teachers, co-workers and just about everyone.

Make up a batch of these delightful Mexican Orange Sugar Cookies for school parties, office parties and/or Sunday school. The house will smell awesome!

In Mexico and along the border where I grew up, the cookies are also called polvorones de naranja. The melt-in-your-mouth cookies are to die for!

We had these cookies at Christmas time, but I love them all the time. LOL

I enjoyed these cookies growing up in Laredo, and I hope you’ll enjoy them too. Grab a cup of coffee and some of these Mexican Orange Sugar Cookies!

Featured Image: Sugar Cookies On A Decorative Plate, Wikimedia Commons

Mexican Orange Sugar Cookies: Polvorones de Naranja

Ingredients

1 3/4 cup flour, sifted
2/3 cup sugar, plus extra for sprinkling on cookies
1 1/2 sticks or 3/4 cup butter or margarine
1 orange, juiced and zested
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1 egg yolk

Instructions

Preheat oven to 375ºF & grease cookie sheets.
Cream the butter or margarine and sugar until fluffy.
Stir in the egg yolk, the orange juice and the orange zest. Add the flour and baking soda.
Roll out the dough to 1/4 inch thick on a floured surface. Cut into circles about 2-2 ½ inches in diameter.
Bake until a light golden brown.
Let the cookies cool, then sprinkle with sugar. Makes about 2 dozen.

You’ll Need A Cookie Sheet For Making Cookies

Nordic Ware Natural Aluminum Commercial Baker’s Half Sheet

Baking cookies is so much fun, especially the part when you get to eat them! Right?

I prefer to make that baking part a little easier on myself by having some good quality baking sheets around.

I have several of these Nordic Ware cookie sheets. They just last longer and they’re easier to clean than some of the other baking sheets.

Mexican Orange Sugar Cookies

These yummy sugar cookies are well known by their Mexican name, “polvorones,” or “polvorones de azucar.” These are deliciously similar to the Mexican Cinnamon Sugar Cookies I shared with you before. Except the flavoring is…you guessed it, orange.

I call them sugar cookies, but they could as easily be shortbread cookies. Or maybe even butter cookies. I’m no cookie connoisseur, except for eating them! There is a difference between those three cookies, just so you know. My preference is shortbread cookies because of their crumbly goodness. Anyway, that’s why I use the term interchangeably. That’s my story and I’m sticking to it.

Polvorones comes from ‘polvo,’ which means powder. Azucar means sugar. The delicious cookies get their name from being rolled in sugar. In other versions of the same cookie, they’re sprinkled or rolled in powdered sugar.

And just to make this all more confusing…Mexican Wedding Cookies are also called polvorones. I assume it’s because those shortbread cookies are rolled in powdered sugar. Remember I told you about trying to figure out which cookie was which? Wedding cookies or no? I don’t care ~ they’re just good!

Orange Shortbread Cookies

This is a yummy recipe for a fantastic cookie. It’s so easy you can make them anytime. You’ll want to keep plenty on hand because they won’t last long.

Serve Your Cookies In Style

If you’re serving your ‘polvorones de naranja’ to guests or at a function, you want a pretty plate to serve them on. Aren’t these lovely?

Our Name Is Mud by Lorrie Veasey Cookie Round Platter, 1-Inch Polish Pottery Cookie Platter 10-inch Blue Poppies Baked With Love Oval Cookie Platter Old St. Nick Cookie Platter

Tasty Variations For Your Mexican Sugar Cookies

Sugar cookies lend themselves to creativity. Try these variations to adapt your cookies as desired:

Use colored sugar sprinkles to add color. Red and Green for Christmas. Red for Valentine’s Day. Get the idea?
Roll the cookies in cinnamon sugar. Yum! The flavor of orange with cinnamon is incredible!
Add finely chopped nuts to the cookie dough before baking (like wedding cookies) or to the sugar for rolling the cookies.

Can you think of more? Fun, isn’t it?

Mexican Wedding Cookies 10oz Bev’s Traditional Biscochitos Cookies ( New Mexico Bueno Anise, 8)