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I love everything about the holidays: the food, the music, spending time with family, the whole shebang. But my favorite part (and I know everyone can agree with me on this) is the food. The countless memories I have of helping my family make the turkey, pernil, and the side dishes during the holidays have got to be some of the best memories I’ve made. I grew up in a family of chefs and bakers, so if I didn’t learn how to cook or at least bake that would have been a bit embarrassing. Luckily, I have picked up a little bit of both. Due to Thanksgiving coming up, I wanted to share the recipe for one of my favorite desserts that my family makes every year: mantecaditos. Mantecaditos are a Puerto Rican shortbread cookie that’s topped with either guayaba (guava paste) or, for people who may not like that, sprinkles. My favorite thing about these cookies is that you can customize them to make them however you would like, with dietary restrictions in mind. In this recipe, I will be specifically going over how to make the guayaba version, as well as adding substitutes for people with different dietary restrictions. Additionally, all of the measurements will be estimated as my family doesn’t really use exact measurements to bake. Now let’s get to it!
Ingredients:
½ cup of salted or unsalted butter, softened (you can use butter alternatives for those who cannot have dairy)
½ cup shortening
Guava paste ( or sprinkles if you prefer those)
2 cups of all-purpose flour (you can use almond flour or gluten-free flour as well just know that you will have to tweak the ratios so that the cookie is not too dry)
1 ½ teaspoon of vanilla extract (almond extract works as well
½ cup of sugar (or alternative sweetener)
Salt (to taste)
Additional Tools:
Bowl
Measuring cups and spoons
Baking/cookie sheet
Parchment paper
knife
Instructions:
- Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.
- While the oven is preheating, cut a piece of parchment paper the size of your baking sheet and place it inside. This will be used to make sure your cookies don’t burn and/or stick to the pan itself.
- Combine the softened butter with the sugar, vanilla extract, and shortening in a decent-sized bowl. You should get a smooth, fluffy consistency if you over-mix, the butter could potentially melt and the texture of the cookies can be thrown off.
- Now add the flour and salt and stir until everything is well combined. You will know everything is well combined because there will be no lumps of flour and you can easily form it into a gigantic ball.
- After the dough has been made, set it aside and start prepping your guayaba. Guayaba paste comes in a container and is usually in a block form. So, to add them to the cookies, you will need to cut them into little cubes.
- Cut the guayaba into 1 cm by 1 cm cubes (the size may change depending on how big you make your cookies) and set those aside for topping the cookies.
- Now, take the dough you just made and separate it into little balls (or however big you want them) and press an indent into the center of each before placing them on the baking sheet. Make sure to give each cookie enough space so that they aren’t getting stuck together during the baking process.
- Put a piece of the guayaba that you cut into the indents you made in the cookies
- Once the cookies are already formed, place them in the oven for 10-20 minutes (or until a nice color and crisp develop on the edges of the cookies). Make sure to periodically check on them if you can, however, do not open the oven. If your oven doesn’t have a window to look into it then check halfway through the baking time.
- After the cookies finish baking, set them aside to cool and enjoy once fully cooled!
I hope that everyone tries this recipe and enjoys these cookies. If you do try this recipe please don’t hesitate to tag @hercampusatlasell on Instagram or @hercampus.lasell on TikTok.