Galletas Caritas – Jessica Dee
If you’re from Texas, you’d likely be able to name most of the sweets that you see when you walk into a Mexican bakery. That is if the smell of bread, cinnamon and sugar do not distract you at the door first.
My guess is, you probably have a favorite pan dulce or you’re like me and you have many. It’s hard to choose just one, I know. But you know what the good thing is? There are plenty to choose from. So, you can just take turns with favorites. There are so many different kinds of breads that there is no exact number, but it hangs around the 500-variety range.
The Galletas Caritas mean “little faces” in Spanish. Hence the big red smiley face. It resembles something of a nostalgic childhood memory, they’re fun and playful. Sometimes to up playfulness, they’ll chocolate or jam between two cookies. soft They are soft and crumbly like a shortbread cookie.
A buttery shortbread cookie with a red smiley face.
- 1 2 or 3 inch cookie cutter
- 295 g All purpose flour 2 cups
- 60 g granulated sugar 1/4 cup
- 60 g powdered sugar 1/2 cup
- 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
- 1/8 tsp salt
- 1 tube red gel for decorating
- In a mixing bowl combine: butter, granulated sugar, powdered sugar and vanilla extract. Set aside. In another bowl combine: all-purpose flour and salt. Set aside. Using paddle attachment, mix butter mixture. Start on a low speed and work your way up to a medium. Mix for 2 minutes. Add flour to butter mixture a little at a time until all ingredients are incorporated. You should get a soft cookie dough mixture. Form cookie dough into a ball, place in a bowl and set in the refrigerator for 10-15 minutes. This will help the butter harden a little so that it can be easier to work with. Place the dough between two big pieces of parchment paper and press down with your hands. Next, use rolling pin to roll dough into a 1/4-inch thickness. Preheat oven to 325 degrees FCut out the cookies with a cookie cutter. Place them on a parchment lined cookie sheet. Draw a smiley face on each cookie with red gel. Bake for 12-14 minutes. Let cool on sheet for about 5 minutes, they move to rack to cool.
Dough will be soft. You can add a little flour to bring it together before you place it in the refrigerator. I used a 2 inch cookie cutter.
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