Marranitos or Puerquitos: Mexican Piloncillo Spiced Cookies

Puerquitos, marranitos, cochinitos, o galletas de piloncillo. These are the names that these piggy shaped cookies are known by across Mexico. They’re an absolutely delicious pan dulce to enjoy with a cup of coffee.

Puerquitos: Mexican Piloncillo Spiced Cookies | #vegan Mexican cookies

Pan Dulce or Mexican Cookies

If you’ve ever been to a Mexican panadería (or bakery) you’ll surely have come across this pan dulce or more like cookie — I keep calling them cookies but in reality they’re somewhere between a crumbly cookie and a pillowy kind of bread-like cookie.

The texture depends on the recipe, and as you can imagine there are tons of variations.

My recipe will give you cookies that are less pillowy but will still be a bit soft. My recipe is sweet but not an overly sweet cookie — which in my book is a good thing!

Piloncillo

The sweetener in the more traditional recipes is piloncillo.

Piloncillo is unrefined whole cane sugar. It has a unique taste, something like a dark brown sugar with hints of molasses. It’s delicious and way better than white refined sugar.

Nowadays, some people like a sweeter cookie so they’ll also add brown sugar to mix. You can always test out my recipe and later adjust the sweetness if you’d like.

Molasses

Molasses aren’t something you’ll easily find in Mexico, it’s extremely rare.

But I have seen some authentic Mexican food bloggers use it in their recipe. So if you don’t have piloncillo feel free to use molasses.

Marranitos or Puerquitos

This famous piggy shaped cookie is know by several names.

Some people called marranitos, other call them puerquitos and some cochinitos or cochinitos de piloncillo.

It really doesn’t matter, they’re all the same cookie really, what may differ are the spices used.

Puerquito Cookie Ingredients

What Spices to Use

This is one of things that differs the most between recipes. Some of the most common spices used are listed below. Please notice that my recipe is the most basic traditional one. The spices below are regional differences or family adaptations.

  • Mexican canela or Ceylon cinnamon
  • vanilla
  • anise
  • cloves
  • orange zest
  • ginger
How to Make Puerquito cookies

How to Make Puerquitos

To make puerquitos it’s actually quite easy.

The first step is to make the piloncillo syrup. This is done by simmering water with piloncillo, cinnamon, star anise until a thick-ish syrup is achieved.

Next step is to mix the flour with the vegetable shortening (or coconut oil), until you achieve a crumbly mix. Then little by little the piloncillo syrup and more flour are incorporated until it forms the dough.

Mexican piggy shaped cookies and cookie cutter

The cookie dough is rolled out then the cookie cutter is dipped into flour before cutting out the piggy cookies.

Mexican piggy shaped cookies

Next the cookies are placed on a lightly greased baking sheet, then brushed with either vegan or regular eggwash, or even just brushed with any leftover piloncillo syrup, then baked.

Are Marranitos or Puerquito Cookies Vegan

Since my recipe uses vegetable shortening then it is vegan.

The egg wash you can use a vegan option or also instead brush with some of the piloncillo syrup. The results are delicious!

Puerquitos: Mexican Piloncillo Spiced Cookies | #vegan Mexican cookies

How to Enjoy Puerquito Cookies

When you take them out of the oven, you’ll know the cookies are perfect because they’ll feel soft. It’s best to enjoy them while they’re still a little warm. They become harder and drier so store in an airtight container and eat within a couple of days.

You can see they look like a cookie but when you break a piece off they’ll be a soft-pillowy kind of cookie — if you over bake them, they’ll be harder like a regular cookie.

My favorite way of enjoying my puerquito cookies are with a cup of unsweetened coffee with plain almond milk. The strong coffee flavors pair perfectly with the sweet, cinnamony, molasses flavors of these cookies.

Like I mentioned before, they’re not overly sweet so you’re taste buds and nose will really pick up all those aromatic flavors. If you like to dunk your cookies, these are THE perfect dunking cookie!

Why don’t you grab a cup coffee and make some puerquitos today!

Thanks for stopping by amigos, Happy Cooking!! ❤️

Puerquitos: Mexican Piloncillo Spiced Cookies

Nancy Lopez & MexicanMadeMeatless.com
A cookie that tastes of cinnamon, molasses and star anise. The cookie dough is vegan but it calls for an eggwash, you can omit it to keep the cookie vegan instead of vegetarian.
5 from 1 vote
Save Recipe Pin Recipe Leave a Review
Prep Time 25 minutes
Cook Time 10 minutes
Total Time 35 minutes
Course Dessert
Cuisine Mexican, vegetarian
Servings 12 servings
Calories 263 kcal

Ingredients
  

Syrup Ingredients:

  • 12.75 oz or 360 grams of piloncillo it’s 1.5 large cones
  • 1 cup of water
  • 2 whole sticks of Mexican cinnamon aka ceylon cinnamon
  • 1 whole star anise

Additional Ingredients:

  • 1.5 cups all purpose flour
  • 1/4 to 1/2 cups all purpose flour* you may or may not need it*
  • 1 cup whole wheat flour
  • 1/3 cup + 2 Tablespoons of vegetable shortening or solid coconut oil (you could also use butter instead)
  • 1 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
  • pinch of fine sea salt optional
  • extra all purpose flour for rolling out
  • 1 lightly beaten egg for egg wash or vegan replacement

Instructions
 

  • Place the piloncillo, water, cinnamon sticks and star anise in a pot. Over medium- low heat simmer until the piloncillo has completely melted — stir often to help it along (or you can use grated piloncillo if desired). Keep a close eye on the pot because it can quickly boil over if the heat is too high. If your syrup is bubbling a lot turn the heat down and keep an eye on it. Once the piloncillo has melted, simmer for 10 minutes on very low heat. Remove from heat, set aside to cool.
    Puerquito Marranitos Cookie Ingredients
  • While you wait for the syrup to cool, place 1.5 cups of the all purpose flour in a bowl and mix the baking soda, baking powder and salt until well combined. Then add the shortening or solid coconut oil and either with your hands or a pastry cutter, mix it into the flour until you have small crumbs.
  • Next remove the cinnamon stick and the star anise from the syrup and carefully pour in 1 cup into a measuring cup — you will have extra syrup and don’t discard it. Once measured out pour the syrup into the flour mixture and stir until well combined. You’ll have a very wet mixture and that’s okay, now add the whole wheat flour into the mixture and stir until well combined. OK, now depending on how humid your kitchen is you may or may not need to add a little more flour into the mixture to get a dough that comes together easily but isn’t too dry. Alternatively some may need to add a bit more syrup to the mixture to get a wet enough dough. Either way please add either the flour or syrup just a tablespoon at a time. Once the dough comes together you can procced.
    How to Make Puerquito cookies
  • Heat the oven to 375℉ or 190℃ and lightly grease or line a baking sheet with baking paper and set aside. Lightly dust your work surface with some flour and roll out the dough to half an inch thick then use your cookie cutter to cut out the cookies — so that the dough doesn’t stick to the cutters you can dip them into a little flour to coat them. Place each cut out cookie onto the baking sheet and continue until you’re done. Brush each cookie with the egg wash then bake in the centre of your oven for 8-10 minutes — they should still feel soft to the touch and be a darker golden brown colour —keep an eye on them so they don’t burn because they bake fast.
  • Remove the cookies from the oven and baking sheet and allow to cool slightly. They taste fansataic still warm and with coffee or tea or hot chocolate. Store leftovers in a resealable bag or sealed container to keep them soft.

Video

Notes

*You may or may not need extra flour, but if you do the amount you’ll need will depend on the humidity in your kitchen. Make sure to start with small amount so you don’t over do it.
Piggy cookie cutters: http://amzn.to/2ESvpNV or if you live in Mexico http://bit.ly/2FOZI9i

Nutrition

Serving: 12servingsCalories: 263kcalCarbohydrates: 47gProtein: 4gFat: 7gSaturated Fat: 2gPolyunsaturated Fat: 2gMonounsaturated Fat: 3gTrans Fat: 1gCholesterol: 14mgSodium: 116mgPotassium: 69mgFiber: 2gSugar: 26gVitamin A: 22IUVitamin C: 1mgCalcium: 30mgIron: 2mg
Tried this recipe?Leave me a ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ review and tag me on social media @MexicanMadeMeatless or tag #mexicanmademeatless!

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12 Comments

    1. Hi Neli, I don’t know I’ve never tried making them gluten-free. Sorry you’d have to experiment and find out if it works.

  1. I really want to make these but font have piloncillo. Would brown sugar work? If so?, how much? Thank you. 🙂

    1. Hi Monica! Yes brown sugar would work the same. But I’ve never actually tested the recipe with the brown sugar. You could use about the same or a little less — I just find brown sugar a bit sweeter so I would use less. However remember that baking is a science and changing the ingredients will not yield the same results. Good luck!

  2. 5 stars
    Hi Monica, I finally made these today and they are delicious! I used a smaller cookie cutter and mine feel a bit more like cookies, but might be because I rolled it too thin. Love that you included some of the other ingredients we can add for changing up the flavor profile, thank you!

    1. Hi Emma!
      I’m glad you made the marranitos and that you liked them. I want to try them thinner like you did. Thank you for cooking my recipe and for the star rating. 🙂
      Warm Regards,
      ~Nancy

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