Mexican Shortbread Cookies: Bizcochitos

Mexican shortbread cookies in star shape.

5 from 1 vote

Mexican Shortbread Cookies: Bizcochitos

These cookies are essentially a shortbread, flavored with anise, orange and cinnamon and then dusted with a sugar and cinnamon coating after baking. They are a classic Christmas holiday cookie!

Prep Time15

Cook Time10

Course: cookies

Cuisine: Mexican

Servings: cookies

Calories: 114kcal

Author: Dorothy Stainbrook

Equipment

bowls
Stand mixer or hand blender
microplane for orange zesting
wire whisk

Ingredients

3 cups all-purpose flour
1 ½ teaspoon cinnamon
1 ½ teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon kosher salt
1 ½ teaspoon ground anise seed can sub in ground star anise
2 teaspoons orange zest zest from 1 large orange
1 ¼ cups butter can substitute lard or shortening
¾ cups sugar
1 large egg
1 tablespoon brandy can substitute vanilla
2 teaspoons anise extract can substitute more anise seed to the dry ingredients

For Sugar-Cinnamon Dusting Powder

½ cup sugar
2 teaspoons cinnamon

Instructions

Preheat oven to 350℉
In a large bowl, whisk together the first 7 ingredients (all the dry ingredients minus the sugar). Set aside.
3 cups all-purpose flour, 1 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon, 1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder, 1/2 teaspoon baking soda, 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt, 1 1/2 teaspoon ground anise seed, 2 teaspoons orange zest
In a stand mixer, add the lard (or butter) and sugar and mix until light and fluffy (about 3 minutes). Add the egg, the brandy and the anise extract and mix until combined.
Slowly add the flour mixture to the bowl of the stand mixer while mixing over low speed. Mix until just combined.
Gather the dough into a ball and cover with plastic wrap. Refrigerate for at least 30 minutes.
1 1/4 cups butter, 3/4 cups sugar, 1 large egg, 1 tablespoon brandy, 2 teaspoons anise extract
Lightly flour the surface where you will be rolling out the dough, as well as dusting the rolling pin with flour. Cover a cookie sheet with parchment paper.
Separate the dough into 3 roughly even balls and roll each one out individually to about 1/4-inch thick. Use your favorite cookie cutter to cut out cookies, and gather unused dough pieces into ball and roll out again.
Continue until the cookie sheet is full and then bake for 10 minutes (at your previously pre-heated oven of 350℉).
Do not overcook. Remove the cookies from oven when edges are just starting to turn golden. For my oven that was 10 minutes.
While cookies are baking, whisk together 1/2 cup sugar with 2 teaspoons cinnamon in a fairly large bowl (depending on how big your cut cookies are).
Remove cookies from oven and sprinkle with the sugar-cinnamon mixture. Cool for 10 minutes and then place the cookies one-by-one in the bowl of sugar-cinnamon mixture and spoon the mix over the cookie. Shake it off a little and place on a plate or wire rack.
Repeat this process for all of the cooled cookies.
Roll out and cut the dough for the second batch of cookies, bake them 10 minutes and repeat the sugar-cinnamon coating process. Same thing for the 3rd batch.
Note: If you have more than one cookie sheet you can prepare the 2nd and 3rd batches of cookies for baking while the 1st batch is cooking.
1/2 cup sugar, 2 teaspoons cinnamon

Notes

Tip: not using a scale or not fluffing their flour properly causes them to pack extra flour into their cups. That extra flour is going to make you cookie dough dry and crumbly.

Nutrition