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Family-friendly meals made easy!
Make everyday family moments count, with easy recipes that everyone will love. Join our email community to receive tested recipes and tips.
Make everyday family moments count, with easy recipes that everyone will love. Join our email community to receive tested recipes and tips.
Polvorones are tender, crumbly shortbread cookies with roots in Spanish and Latin American baking. There are many regional variations—some made with ground nuts, others rolled in powdered sugar or flavored with citrus or warm spices. This easy polvorones recipe is inspired by Mexican-style tri-color polvorones, using sugar cookie dough flavored with cocoa and strawberry powder to create an eye-catching, colorful cookie that’s as pretty as it is delicious. These easy tri-color polvorones are a simple shortcut version of the traditional cookie, perfect for holiday baking, cookie trays, or anytime treats.
Ready to get started? Here’s what you’ll need to make Easy Polvorones.
Refrigerated Pillsbury™ Ready to Bake!™ Sugar Cookie Dough: Ready to Bake!™ dough makes it simple to portion out the 3 flavors and reliably bakes up tender and delicious.
All-Purpose Flour: Mixing in a bit of flour helps the cookies hold clean edges in the oven.
Powdered Sugar: Just a small amount helps give the cookies a delicate, crumbly texture.
Almond Flour: Almond’s natural oils add subtle flavor and give a soft, tender crumb.
Unsweetened Cocoa: Natural or Dutch-processed cocoa both work well to lend color and flavor.
Strawberry Powder: Freeze-dried strawberry powder adds strawberry flavor and color without changing the texture of the dough.
Red Gel Food Color: Just a small amount is needed to enhance the pink tone of the strawberry portion. We tested with Betty Crocker™ gel food color; if you use another brand, you may need to add more or less color.
Look below for a primer on how to make these beautiful cookies. Follow the recipe for more details.
Separate the dough into 3 bowls, adding all-purpose flour, powdered sugar, and almond flour to all 3 bowls. Add the cocoa into one portion, and the strawberry powder and food color into another. Mix each portion of dough until combined.
Shape each portion of dough into a long, thin rope. Adhere the ropes together, side by side, so they form a long triangle. Wrap the dough and freeze until firm.
Slice the dough and place on prepared baking sheets. Bake until golden brown around the edges. Enjoy warm or at room temperature.
If you have leftover polvorones, they’re great for snacking. Here’s how to store them.
Keep cookies in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 4 days.
You can store the cookies in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 5 days.
For even longer storage, keep cookies in an airtight container in the freezer for up to 2 months.
Separate dough evenly into three bowls. To each bowl, add 1 teaspoon powdered sugar, 1 teaspoon all-purpose flour, and 1/2 teaspoon almond flour. (DO NOT EAT RAW COOKIE DOUGH AFTER COMBINING WITH FLOUR.) In one of the bowls, add baking cocoa. In another bowl, add strawberry powder and food color. In each bowl, mix the dough until all ingredients are well combined.
Turn out dough from 1 bowl onto your work surface. Roll into a 16-inch rope, about 1 inch in diameter. Repeat with remaining dough until you have 3 ropes—one white, one pink, one brown. Place two of the ropes side by side and the third on top, so the three ropes form a triangle.
Wrap the dough in plastic wrap, and freeze for 45 minutes or until the dough is firm but sliceable.
Adjust oven racks so two shelves are positioned near the center of the oven, leaving enough space between them for air to circulate evenly around both baking sheets. Heat oven to 350°F (or 325°F for nonstick cookie sheet). Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper.
Cut the dough into 1/2-inch slices. Place slices about 2 inches apart on prepared baking sheets.
Bake 7 to 10 minutes, until edges are light golden brown. Cool 1 minute, then remove from baking sheets to cool completely.
Make sure to keep your work surface clean when rolling out the dough, so the colors stay beautiful and crisp. Try giving your surface a wipe in between shaping the plain, strawberry, and chocolate dough.
Strawberry powder can be purchased online or at specialty grocery stores, but you can also make your own. Simply pulse freeze-dried strawberries in a food processor or blender until you get a fine powder. Store it in an airtight container.
This recipe was developed and tested with both baking sheets in the oven at the same time, and in most ovens, they should bake evenly without needing to rotate the pans. However, if your oven tends to bake unevenly or has noticeable hot spots, you can rotate the baking sheets halfway through baking by switching the top and bottom pans and turning each sheet 180 degrees to promote more even browning and baking.
