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Today Melanie shares a recipe for a Spanish favorite, mantecados. These traditional shortbread cookies are popular around the holidays, but delicious all year round!
Mantecados are one of Spain's favorite sweet treats. They are super simple to make and a tasty crowd pleaser for any occasion. Mantecados are typically enjoyed during the winter and at Christmastime in Spain, but that doesn't mean they can't make an appearance year-round!
Mantecados are small shortbread sugar cookies that require just a few ingredients and very little time to prepare. The name mantecadoscomes from the Spanish word manteca, which means fat or lard. Here I've translated this ingredient to mean vegetable shortening, which helps provide the proper texture and consistency for the otherwise crumbly shortbread cookie. In Spain, pork fat is used (manteca de cerdo), which is an option if you have it available.
Spain's rich history related to mantecados includes hundreds of years of cookie preparation using the fat or lard from pigs near the city of Estepa. Estepa, located near Seville in Southern Spain, is known as the "city of mantecados" (la ciudad del mantecado). Near the end of the nineteenth century, the cookies were prepared by drying them out to help maintain their qualities for consumption. This preparation technique helped market the cookies more widely beyond Estepa and into other cities in Southern Spain.
See the mantecados recipe below to give them a try yourself!
Spanish Mantecados Recipe
Mantecados Recipe: Traditional Spanish Shortbread Cookies
This easy and delicious mantecados recipe will have you enjoying Spain's favorite cookies in no time!
5 from 10 votes
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Course: Dessert
Cuisine: Spanish
Prep Time: 15 minutes minutes
Cook Time: 18 minutes minutes
Total Time: 33 minutes minutes
Servings: 20 cookies
Calories: 216.71kcal
Author: Lauren Aloise
Ingredients
- 1 cup of soft butter or vegetable shortening you can also use traditional pork lard if you want
- ½ cup of light olive oil
- 1 cup of white sugar
- 1 lemon peel grated
- 2 teaspoons of lemon juice tip: use the same lemon that you zest
- 1 egg beaten
- 2 cups of flour tip: for a gluten-free option, try almond flour
- ½ teaspoon of baking soda
- ½ cup of almond halves optional
Instructions
Preheat oven to 325°F
For the Dough
Wash the lemon, and zest it. Once you have collected all zest from the lemon, set it aside. Then, cut the lemon into two halves. Set the halves aside.
In a large mixing bowl, whip the vegetable shortening or butter by hand or with a hand mixer. Once whipped, add in the olive oil.
Next, add in the sugar to the vegetable shortening and olive oil mix. Continue mixing these three ingredients together until the texture is smooth.
Add into the mixture the egg and lemon zest. Squeeze the juice of one of the lemon halves into the mixture.
Continue mixing all ingredients together. Once the mixture is again smooth in texture, add in the dry ingredients including the flour and baking soda. Mix all ingredients together.
Lastly, fold in a ½ cup of almond halves if desired.
For the Cookies
Using a teaspoon or your hands, make small balls with the dough. Place the small dough balls onto a greased cookie sheet.
Press down on each small dough ball to help flatten it before baking.
Bake the cookies for about 15-20 minutes until they turn light brown in color. Allow the cookies to cool before serving, and serve delicately so that they do not crumble!
Tip
If the dough mixture is too dry, try adding some milk to thicken it. If the dough mixture is too runny, try adding some additional flour.
Nutrition
Calories: 216.71kcal | Carbohydrates: 19.64g | Protein: 1.67g | Fat: 14.94g | Saturated Fat: 6.66g | Cholesterol: 32.59mg | Sodium: 32.21mg | Potassium: 19.13mg | Fiber: 0.37g | Sugar: 10.05g | Vitamin A: 295.52IU | Vitamin C: 0.58mg | Calcium: 5.83mg | Iron: 0.65mg
Did you make this recipe?Tag @spanishsabores on IG and hashtag it #spanishsabores!
Have you ever tried Spanishmantecados? What is your favorite Spanish treat?
See Also
Traditional Spanish Pisto Recipe
Best Traditional Spanish Sangria Recipe
More Recipes
- Traditional Spanish Sofrito Recipe
- Lentejas con Chorizo Recipe
- Spanish Albóndigas in Almond Sauce
- Marinated Carrots (Zanahorias Aliñadas)
Reader Interactions
Comments
Sherry B
When I lived in Madrid, mantecados were my favorite sweet treat. I'm so thrilled to have (finally) found a recipe. Can't wait to bake a batch. I don't recall the ones I would buy in the local panaderia having any lemon juice or zest, but I'm a huge zest fan, so I'll try the recipe exactly as written.
Funny, when friends would visit, they'd all want the fancy pastries from the pasteleria. For my money, you couldn't beat a big cup of café con leche ("desayuno" style) and a mantecado or two. In fact, when I recently visited Barcelona, those were the two things I was most eager to find. The café was easy -- it was everywhere. The mantecado took some luck, as they're more of a Madrid thing.
Muchas gracias por la receta!Reply
Zara Kaufmann
So happy to find this recipe, it was always my favorite christmas cookie. In Spain we also buy them with chocolate, cinnamon and other flavours, so I suppose that would be easy to add.Reply
Ricardo de Olivas y Cordova
En Colorado y Nuevo Mejico - donde ha existido la cultura hispana desde 1598 - se cocinan los bizcochitos de anis - que son mantecados y tradicionales para Navidad y las Bodas (casorios),Reply
Olivia Zimmerman
Eran muy buenos y fáciles de hacer. Estaban un poco secos, pero todavía muy buenos.
Reply
De
Would love a recipe for the amazing home made spicy sausages I ate at a vineyard in Spain made by the mother.
Reply
Brooke Barba
¡Yo me encanta la receta! También, yo agregué azúcar glas.
Reply
Susan Garcia
My mother-in-law was from Southern Dpain. I've made these cookies for 46 years!
Reply
MjSousa
Hi. Do you make your cookies with butter, shortening or lard?
Reply
