My mom’s been making these cookies forever. I remember being little and sneaking downstairs to raid the cookie jar. Ok, it wasn’t my intention to raid the jar, but it’s really tough to stop at just one biscoito. Ok…two. Alright, maybe it was more like three or four. Hey, I was young; it was easy to loose count. The details of the quantities I would eat in one sitting (or should I say, one sneaking) might be a fuzzy memory, but I can clearly remember the big glass cookie jar and the exact spot my mom kept it, just like it was yesterday.
So with these memories recalled I was now craving biscoitos and I knew I’d have to make them tonight. On my way home, I made my customary, “Hey mom, I need some recipe pointers” call to Portugal. She always chuckles a little when she gets this call. She gave me some pointers and I headed home to get started.
These cookies are so easy to make. You just add all the ingredients in a stand mixer bowl, then mix/knead and voila, your dough is ready to be shaped and placed on your cookie sheet. The only difficult part of this recipe is the wait; they take a while in the oven.
These cookies are so worth the wait though, and I promise you, they won’t last long at your home!
Go call a loved one, chat for a while, share a memory or two, and eat well friends.
- 7 cups of all-purpose flour (we use unbleached)
- 2 cups granulated sugar
- 4 tsp baking powder
- 2 tsp salt
- 9 oz unsalted butter, at room temperature (255 g) (same as 1 cup + 2 tbsp)
- 6 large eggs, at room temperature
- ⅓ cup freshly squeezed orange juice
- 2 tbsp lemon zest
- Preheat the oven to 350 ºF.
- Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper.
- In a large stand mixer bowl, place all the ingredients in the order described above.
- Attach the dough hook to the stand mixer.
- Run the stand mixer on it's lowest setting for 10 minutes.
- All the ingredients should be well incorporated and the dough should be coming off the sides of the bowl. If not, let the stand mixer run 2 or 3 more minutes.
- Note: For this next step, you can eyeball it or you can use a small digital scale (we used a scale).
- If you're doing this by-eye, pull about a walnut-sized ball of dough from your bowl; or if by weight, 1.2 oz (34 g).
- Roll the dough between the palms of your hand to form a ball.
- Now, with the dough ball between your palms, rub your hands together (as if warming them up) to form a snake shaped piece of dough.
- Now place the dough on the baking sheet in a circle shape ,but don't close the loop. Cross one end over the other (see the sample image).
- Repeat the last four steps until the baking sheet is full. We fit 20 per sheet.
- Place the baking sheet in the oven and bake for 25 minutes. Check at about 22 minutes. If they start to colour a lot, remove them from the oven before the full 25 minutes.
- Wait 5 minutes and transfer the cookies to a cooling wrack.
- Repeat the last two steps until all the cookies are baked.
- Store these in a tightly sealed cookie jar or plastic container.
My mom use to add a little brandy or whiskey instead of the lemon and she brushed the tops with beaten egg for color. On the holidays she would use sprinkles or colored sugar. Love them. Going to make them tonight and share with my non Portuguese friends,
That’s the beauty of these types of cookies. You can definitely tweak them with wonderful options. Let me know if you try them and how it goes. Happy holidays!
Delicious! Love these.
Thank you very much. That makes us happy!