Hojarascas

Continent: North America Country: Mexico Recipe Source: Love and Tacos

I'll be the first to admit I don't know a lot about traditional Mexican dishes. I grew up in southern California, but I saw a lot more fusion-style, Cali-Mexican dishes and a lot more street tacos than baked goods. My first attempt at research led to a post about hojarascas, where the author waxed eloquently about fall and crunchy leaves and how the season made them feel. Since crunchy leaves are one of my favorite things, I decided to make an attempt at the cookies the author described, cookies that share the name in Spanish for "crunchy leaves"---hojarascas.

The author warned that the cookie dough might be dry and mine really was. I had to add nearly a cup and a half of water to make it remotely workable. I thought at first I did something wrong, but as I reread through the recipe now, the amount of cinnamon listed (3 tbsp) seems really high. The author reduced the recipe from one for 12 dozen, so I have to wonder if the cinnamon amount didn't get properly shrunk. My cookies look way darker than the recipe photos on the original post.

My attempt.

Original post photo.

The final baked version I ended up with turned out well-flavored (and very cinnamony), but also very dry. I opted to take the recipe author's suggestion and make some rice pudding to go with the cookies, which made for a delicious pairing. All in all, I'll give another version of the recipe a try before I pass a final verdict. 

Cookies with rice pudding.