Mexican Cinnamon Sugar Cookies – Polvorones de Canela

Mexican Cinnamon Sugar Cookies – Polvorones de Canela are a delightful cinnamon shortbread cookie. We love cookies at our house. It is so easy to whip up a batch anytime we like. I personally love many different kinds of cookies, anything from a simple drop cookie made from a cake mix to a rolled cut-out sugar cookie made from scratch.

These cookies are a light shortbread type cookie and they have a crumbly texture. When you take a bite they sort of burst apart into your mouth.

Aren’t these shapes cute?! I bought the llama and cat cookie cutters at Target at least a year or two ago and was waiting for a good cookie recipe to use them for. I think this Mexican sugar cookies recipe is perfect! We also used a square cookie cutter with scalloped edges. I think they look so pretty!

Ingredients

See recipe card for exact amounts.

Ingredient Notes

Butter – we always use unsalted butter.

Powdered Sugar – this is what makes this cookie different than a traditional sugar cookie that uses regular sugar.

Sugar – we sprinkle the warm cookies with granulated sugar right when they come out of the oven.

Flour – all purpose flour, spooned and leveled. Martha Stewart has a great article on how to properly measure flour.

Vanilla – pure vanilla extract, not imitation vanilla.

Cinnamon – we put this in the cookie dough and then sprinkle a cinnamon sugar mixture on top of the cookies before baking.

Salt – regular table salt works great.

How to Make Polvorones de Canela

1. Line a rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper.
2. In a small bowl stir cinnamon and sugar together; set side.
3. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment cream the butter and powdered sugar together until light and fluffy. Add the cinnamon, salt and vanilla and mix until combined.
4. Add the flour to the butter mixture in increments, mixing until well incorporated after each addition (I do this in about five additions). Wrap the cookie dough in plastic wrap and refrigerate for about an hour.
5. Roll out dough on a lightly floured surface to about ¼″ thick and cut out into your favorite shapes.
6. Put cinnamon sugar mixture in a small mesh strainer and sprinkle liberally onto the cookies before baking.
7. Bake at 350° for 11 – 13 minutes or until light golden brown around the edges. Sprinkle cookies with white sugar as soon as they come out of the oven.

How Many Cookies Will One Batch Make?

This depends on the size of the cookie cutter you use. For example, the llama is about 3 ½ inches tall and 2 ½ inches wide at the widest point. The cat is about 3 ½ inches tall and about 3 inches wide at the widest point and we get about 36 of these cookies. The square cookies are about 1 ¾ inch square and we get about 60 of these. This amount is for one batch of cookies, so 36 cut out cookies OR 60 square cookies. 

Three Different Ways to Make This Mexican Cookie Recipe

This is such a versatile recipe. You can roll them into 1-inch balls, shape dough into a log and slice them, or they can be rolled out and cut with cookie cutters. We chose to roll them out into shapes. Please note that the balls will take 15-20 minutes to bake.

What if I don’t have a stand mixer?

That is a-okay! You can use a hand mixer or even mix them by hand. While they are easier to make and using an electric mixer may result in fluffier cookie dough don’t let not having a mixer stop you from making these yummy cookies.

Tips

• Always use room temperature butter and eggs for best results when baking unless the instructions say to specifically use cold ingredients (like some scones and pie crust).
• Cream the butter and sugar by starting on low speed and increasing it as the sugar mixes in with the butter. Add the flour mixture on low speed and increase to medium speed after the last addition is incorporated.
• Scrape down the sides of the bowl at least once when creaming the butter and sugar, a couple of times when adding the flour, and one final time after all the flour is added to ensure everything gets mixed properly.
• Pour the dough out onto the plastic wrap and use it to shape the dough into a big ball, then wrap it and put it in the fridge. If dough is too stiff when it comes out let it sit a few minutes. It will also warm up a bit while you are rolling it or shaping it.
• The square cookie cutter works best, then the llama. The cat cookies want to break right at the cat’s neck because that is a narrow area. The thicker cat cookies were sturdier but we had to be careful with the thin ones because they wanted to break. So when deciding what different shapes you might want to make remember that narrow places will be weak and will most likely break.
• I am not that great at rolling the dough evenly so some cookies came out thinner than others. This is okay! As long as your shape doesn’t have a narrow part (like the cat’s neck) then they come out fine. The thinner cookies are crispier than the thick ones. Luckily Lee likes thin and crispy cookies and I like them a little thicker.
• Because the cookies are sprinkled with a cinnamon-sugar mixture before baking it is highly recommended that you line the cookie sheet with parchment paper.

What We Love About These Mexican Cookies

They require simple ingredients we always have on hand.

We use our stand mixer and everything gets added into the same bowl. No mixing wet ingredients and dry ingredients in separate bowls and then mixing them together.

These can be made into fun shapes making them the perfect cookie for the Christmas season or any other holiday or occasion.

Other Cookie Recipes You Might Like

Toffee Snickerdoodles

Cake Mix Cookies

Pumpkin Cookies with Marshmallow Glaze

Drop Sugar Cookies

Peach Pie Thumbprint Cookies

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