Marranitos, Little Piggy Mexican Cookies
Everybody loves marranitos, those piggy-shaped cookies that almost taste like ginger but no ginger here, it’s the piloncillo that you’re tasting. They are a Mexican bakery icon. They are also a sweet memory, childhood and adult, in Mexican American families of Texas.
This cookie recipe for Marranitos is from my new cookbook, “Don’t Count The Tortillas: The Art Of Texas Mexican Cooking.”
Sale: “Don’t Count The Tortillas: The Art of Texas Mexican Cooking”
It took me more than a dozen times to get it right, to tweak the recipe until the cookie tasted just the way I remember it from my childhood, from the corner bakery in San Antonio’s Westside. It really does.
Leave me a comment about your reaction to the taste or to the visual image of the marranitos. I’d be interested especially in your memories,. The art of Texas Mexican cooking, just like other Mexican American art, comes from having the confidence to “claim knowledge based on your experience and that of your community,” (Castañeda, Antonia, August 16, 2017).
At the first bite, you’d swear they are gingerbread, but there is no ginger in these cookies, just the unique flavor of piloncillo, unrefined cane sugar, with just a hint of spices, including black pepper. This version is made with bread flour, which produces spongy, cake-like cookies. There is also a crispy version, but this is my favorite.
Marranitos Recipe
Ingredients (makes twenty 5-inch cookies)
1 1⁄4 cup piloncillo, firmly packed, 10 ounces by weight
1⁄4 cup water to dissolve the piloncillo
1⁄4 cup nonhydrogenated vegetable shortening
1 1⁄2 teaspoons baking soda
1 1⁄2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 1⁄2 teaspoons vanilla
1/8 teaspoon ground cloves
1/8 teaspoon ground star anise
1/8 teaspoon ground black pepper
3⁄4 cup unsulphured molasses
3 eggs, beaten
6 cups bread flour
1⁄2 cup water
For the Egg Wash
1 egg
1 teaspoon milk
Method
1. Preheat oven to 400 ̊F.
2. In a saucepan over medium heat, 
stir the piloncillo and 1⁄4 cup water until the former is completely dissolved. Allow to cool to room temperature.
3. In a mixer, combine the dissolved piloncillo with the molasses, shortening, vanilla, cinnamon, cloves, star anise, and black pepper. Mix until completely smooth.
4. Add the eggs and 1⁄2 cup water and mix until thoroughly combined.
5. Sift together the flour and baking soda and mix in gradually to form a moist, sticky dough. Form into a flat round; wrap in plastic; and chill in the refrigerator for one to two hours.
6. On a well-floured surface, with a floured rolling pin, roll out the chilled dough to a 1⁄4-inch thickness and use a marranito cookie cutter to form the cookies into cute little piggies. Place them on a greased baking sheet and brush the tops with the egg wash.
7. Bake for 20 minutes. Cool the marranitos on a rack.
Your friends will be surprised to learn that the sharp, gingery taste comes from the flavor of piloncillo with spices. I serve these with a pot of café de olla.
If you use regular flour that will help make a crisper cookie. Two other factors are: use white granulated sugar, and cook at a much lower temperature for a longer time. 325 degrees for 20 minutes or so. Those changes will give you a crisp cookie.
You mentioned there is a crispy version. Where can I find the recipe? I bought one at an Ecuador Panadería and it was delicious.
the texture will be different. It won’t be “cakey.” I think you should try it with AP flour and see what you think. Good luck.
Would it matter if I used all-purpose flour in place of bread flour?
I found several sizes of the pig cookie cutters at Amazon.
It is sometimes difficult to find those little piggy cookie cutters. I was able to find them online. A large size, as big as my hand, is the one that is most common, but I was able to find also a small one that I really like. The large one is plastic and the small one is tin. Good luck finding one, and send me an email if you cannot locate it and I’ll look into it. Good luck! I love the marranitos cookies!
Where can i buy the pig cookie cutters
Se ven Deliciosos!!!!
I can’t wait to try the recipe! They look deliciosos! I also am going to look for your cook book and buy it! “Don’t count the tortillas” is the way we do!🥰