Pastissets: A Party-Perfect Cookie Recipe from Spain

Last week, I was invited to a party. This was an exciting prospect, because typically at parties there is cake. Or as Julia Child once smartly and aptly put it, "a party without cake is just a meeting."

It was a potluck party, so naturally I decided to bring something sweet. Since these were new friends, I also wanted to kiss up a little bit. So in knowing that they had lived in Barcelona for a while (showoffs), I decided to find a recipe from Spain. Maybe a cake?

Well, almost: a cookie. In my brief research, I discovered a little something called pastissets. In looking at the recipe, which relied on lard for a tender texture and confectioners' sugar for a snowy coating, it struck me that these cookies seem very much like the love child of New Mexican biscochitos and Mexican wedding cakes (or snowballs, or whatever you want to call them). No nuts, but still that melt-in-your mouth texture. 

Apparently, in Spain sometimes pastissets are more like a sweet mini empanada cookie; it is in particular in Amposta that they're created in this way, sometimes with olive oil, sometimes with lard. The fact that some versions are made with anisette makes them only more similar to biscochitos!

I made mine with butter because I wasn't sure if any vegetarians would be in the house, and they went over quite well. I left some for my sweetie, who had to work, and he left me this note: 

So I would say they are a success.

Just to review: melt in your mouth. Nice and tender. Like Snowballs or Russian teacakes or Mexican wedding cakes but without the nuts!

I give them an A+. I hope you do too.

Pastissets

Makes about 24

• 1 cup unsalted butter (original recipe called for 2/3 cup lard and 1/3 cup butter)
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1 egg yolk
• 1/2 teaspoon lemon peel, grated
• 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 cups flour
• 2 teaspoons salt
• confectioners' sugar, sifted ( for dusting)

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
2. In a large bowl, cream the butter until smooth.
3. Incorporate the sugar, egg yolk and lemon peel. Stir in the vanilla.
4. In a separate bowl, combine the cinnamon, flour, and salt; work into the buttery mixture with your hands to form a smooth dough.
5. Roll the cookies into 

6. Arrange cookies on a greased or parchment lined cookie sheet and bake for about 10 minutes, or until golden.
7. Allow to cool briefly on the cookie sheet as they are delicate when warm. If one looks like it's trying to hide, eat that one first. 

8. Coat with confectioners' sugar twice: once after they've cooled for a few minutes, and again before serving. 

How To Make Sticky Buns Using Pizza Dough

I am totally not kidding when I tell you that sticky buns and pizza are one step closer to holy union in this recipe, which uses pizza dough as the base for tasty, carb-y sticky buns. You've got to try it to believe it. Here's the recipe.

Let's Taco About It: An Illustrated Guide to Tacos

Just what you've been lacking in life: an illustrated primer on tacos, featuring emotive taco illustrations! Learn all about tacos and enjoy the cuteness here. 

Baker's Dozen: A Batch of Sweet Links!

Happy 4th of July! We have a couple of links appropriate for the holiday, but they're all awesome.

Hartford election cupcakes: an American classic.

American flag cake: because, well, of course.

If you have any leftover, make a cake shake.

A great collection of food quotes, including one by ME.

How could cherry pie get better? UM, PUT IT IN A CHOCOLATE CRUST.

If this cake doesn't make you smile, I don't know what will. 

Coconut sugar banana pudding popsicles. They sound vaguely healthy but I think I could rally.

Dark chocolate ice cubes. I'm obsessed, you?

Hazelnut poppyseed cookies. Don't they look amazing?

In case you missed it: Candy Warhol, a tutorial on how to make a fine art inspired candy mosaic.

A retired woman bakes a pie a day and gives each to someone. I love this story! 

Everyone wants a unicorn in roller skates on their t-shirt. Here's how to make one yours.

This is not sweet, but it's one of the best savories you'll try this summer. Mexican street style corn!

I adore this homemade ice cream cake. 

Book of the week: Butter Baked Goods: Nostalgic Recipes From a Little Neighborhood Bakery. Not only is this book pretty as a picture, with a color scheme which will make you ache to wear a party dress and hold a tea party, but it's got a solid collection of classic recipes, including the best homemade marshmallows I've ever tasted and some especially wonderful lemon squares.

American Flag Shortbread Recipe

When the settlers came over from Europe, they didn't just bring a will for freedom and revolution: they brought over their shortbread recipes. 

Shortbread is perhaps one of the world's most perfect, and most simple, foods. Consisting primarily of flour, butter, sugar, and salt, it can be prettied up in any number of ways, but is in its essence a humble food. 

This recipe takes but one liberty: the addition of cornstarch to mimic the lower-protein flours which might have been used in old-school Europe; but otherwise it is fairly straightforward.

To make it a bit more festive, I reserved about 1/8 of the dough, which tinted red. I then made the majority of the dough into a rectangle, removing a portion from the left hand corner to make the blue portion of the flag. I tinted it after I cut it out; this was how I ensured I had enough dough.

Now, I should tell you that decorating with tinted shortbread is tough because you can't really roll or shape it. So I gathered crumbles and kind of pressed them into stripes, and simply shaped and placed the blue portion where I had removed it initially. I used the leftover bits to form ugly multicolored balls of shortbread. They still tasted good. 

It baked up pretty sweet, don't you think? Here's the recipe for shortbread--it's a keeper. 

How to make perfect shortbread

as seen on Craftsy

Ingredients:

• 1 ¼ cups all-purpose flour (about 6 ounces)
• 1 stick unsalted butter, softened (4 ounces)
• ½ cup granulated sugar (about 2 ounces)
• ¼ cup cornstarch (about 1 ounce)
• Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F.

Procedure

1. Cut the butter into pieces. Using a wooden spoon, mix the butter and sugar by hand until pale and creamy.
2. Sift the flour, cornstarch and salt into the bowl of creamed butter and sugar, and mix well, continuing to use your wooden spoon. It will begin to come together in a somewhat crumbly dough, but it should very easily clump together if you gather it with your hand. If baking as a large round or as small cutout cookies, transfer to a parchment-lined baking sheet.
3. Lightly flour a work surface. Place the dough on top. Roll out the dough until it is about ¼-inch thick.
4. Decide what shape you’d like the shortbread in (follow the steps above, to flag-ify it). If you’d like it to be a round, shape it into a circle by hand. If you’d like it to bake in a pan, press it into a greased 8″ by 8″ pan. Or, simply cut the rolled dough using a lightly floured cutter. Score the dough if it will be sliced after baking, and lightly prick all over with the tines of a fork.
5. Bake in the preheated oven for 25 minutes, or until the sides and bottoms are lightly browned but the top is just set. Step 7: Let cool on the pan for about 5 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely. Don’t get greedy, or you might burn your mouth.

Happy 4th of July! Don't forget to make some pop rocks cookies, too.

Mexican Street Style Corn

Nope. Not sweet. Savory. But oh, so tasty. Seriously, this is the best thing to ever happen to corn. It's my favorite type of corn aside from unicorns. Here's how to do it.