Receipe from Patricia Montes: Mexican Mantecada (shortbreads)

Ingredients:
o 2 Eggs (size L)
o 125 g of sugar (½ cup plus 1 tablespoon)
o ½ cup of vegetable oil or ¾ cup of butter without salt
o 1 teaspoon of vanilla essence or orange essence
o 1 teaspoon orange zest
o 125 g of flour (1 cup minus 1 tablespoon)
o 1 teaspoon of baking powder
o ½ cup of milk
o 1 tablespoon of instant yeast
o 1 pinch of salt
o 8 baking cups

Process:

• In a deep bowl mix together the flour, salt, sugar, orange zest, baking powder and instant yeast
• Add the milk, oil or butter, vanilla or orange essence and eggs.
• Mix all ingredients to form a homogeneous mixture.
• Pour the mixture into the baking cups letting them rest for 30 minutes
• Put a little of sugar on the mixture
• Preheat the oven to 200 °C 10 minutes before to baking 
• Lower the temperature to 180 °C and baking to 15-20 minutes, (depends of the oven)
• Let cool

My name is Patricia. I am passionate about cooking. I love everything that involves mixing ingredients and transforming them into something delicious (cooking). The recipe that I share with you is Mexican Mantecadas (shortbreads) one of my favorite breads because it brings me many memories of my childhood. Shortbreads is not one of the most popular sweet breads in Mexico, I don´t know for sure where it originated. What I know is that since I remember I saw to my grandmother wake up early and go to the store to buy a litter of milk and his shortbreads. Maybe that is why I love that bread by tradition, heritage and taste. It is a very simple bread because as decoration it only has a little sugar on top with its red baking cup. Excellent companion for a coffee or just a glass of very cold milk. I am from Jalisco, which is a state located in the west of Mexican Republic. In Jalisco, we have a very varied gastronomy; we go from very sweet to very spicy.