These really aren't difficult to make as long as you remember that you're just MAKING COOKIES for family and friends ~ not doing brain surgery! So, don't expect them to be perfect or you'll drive yourself crazy! Just "estimate" when you divide the dough into thirds ~ don't fuss about it if your rolled logs aren't even or break (just "smoosh" them back together). No one else will have BLUE, white & chocolate polvorones and yours will taste delicious (even if they aren't perfect), so just relax and have fun! My grandmother (the best baker EVER) said that your cakes & cookies shouldn't be perfect so people knew they were homemade and not mass produced in a bakery.
FESTIVE MEXICAN POLVORONES
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened…………………..1 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup vegetable shortening (i.e. Crisco)…………………...1 egg
1 tsp. vanilla extract……………………………………………..1/2 tsp. salt
2-1/2 cups all-purpose flour……………………..……………..1/2 tsp. cinnamon
1 tsp. baking powder…………………………………………….2 tsp. dark chocolate syrup
2 TB dark unsweetened cocoa powder.................................blue food color
blue & white sanding sugar ~and/or~ snowflake sprinkles
***
Beat the shortening, butter and sugar with your mixer until creamy and light in color (2-3 minutes). Beat in egg and vanilla. Gradually beat in the flour, baking powder and salt ~ then beat on medium until it comes together around the paddle. Take the dough out and divide into 3 portions (as close as you can see). Put 1 portion back into the mixer to do the BLUE RASPBERRY. (Keep the other 2 portions separate ~ one will be the VANILLA and we'll do the CHOCOLATE portion after the blue raspberry. I do the blue one first because then I don't have to wash the bowl or paddle b/c you won't see any blue dough that's left in the chocolate. But if you do the chocolate first, then you do need to wash bowl & paddle b/c the chocolate will show in the blue portion.)
Add the blue jello powder and some blue food coloring ~ beat to see if you need more food coloring. If you're using regular food coloring (or don't have enough in there of gel or paste), the dough will look green because of the egg in the dough ~ so add more food coloring. Then beat until it's all blended well. Take it all out and set aside.
Now add one of the remaining white portions. Add the cocoa powder, chocolate syrup and cinnamon ~ and beat until well blended and take out of the mixer.
***
You're going to make 2 rolls about 18” long with each color, so divide each color in half. With your hands, roll each portion of dough into logs. If you're just going to put a SNOWFLAKE sprinkle on them (and skip the colored sugar ~ which can drive you a little crazy), then put a blue and a white log together, with a chocolate one on top (it will be somewhat a triangle). Put the dough triangle onto a sheet of saran wrap (I laid the saran on top of the roll, and then rolled it back to cover entire roll with saran); wrap tightly & stick into freezer briefly about 15 min. (obviously for both 3-log triangles) I didn't have a baking sheet long enough, so just put the pyrex cutting board I was working on into the freezer.
But, if you are ready to drive yourself a little "nutty", then you can cover the white vanilla logs with white Sparkling sugar ~ and the blue raspberry logs with blue Sparkling (or sanding) sugar. (I suggest you do the white first, so if there's still white sugar on your work surface, it won't matter if it gets on the blue logs.) You may think of an easier way, but I did both logs for all 3 flavors and put the chocolate logs at the top of my pyrex cutting board (and ignored them). I cut a length of wax paper that was as long as the logs, but since I didn't need the width, I cut it in half width-wise so I had a piece for each color (photo above). Doing 1 vanilla log at a time, lay it on the waxed paper and heavily sprinkle with white Sanding sugar. Roll the log in the sugar until it's well coated. Then roll it off, onto your work surface ~ and do the same thing with the 2nd vanilla log. (If the logs are uneven in thickness or break, just "smoosh" them together ~ don't worry about it). *** Now you're going to basically the same thing with the blue raspberry logs (using the 2nd piece of waxed paper to roll them in blue sugar). *** So ~ you have 2 chocolate logs ~ 2 vanilla logs and 2 blue raspberry logs. You need to "jump" one of the either blue or white logs over the other, so that you have a blue log right next to a white log (it will most likely break, but just squish it together). Now, put a chocolate log on top of them, so it forms a triangle. You need to get that triangle of 3 colored-logs onto a piece of Saran wrap ~ and wrap it up tightly. (haha ~ after fighting with the darned sugar, now you're fighting with plastic wrap!) No wonderful tip for doing that ~ SORRY! Put both wrapped logs into the freezer for at least 15 minutes (gives you time to clean up the sugar all over your kitchen and straighten up).
Preheat the oven to 350 and line probably 3 baking sheets with parchment paper.
Remove a 3-color dough log from the freezer (leave other one in until ready to cut it). Unwrap & slice into 1/4" pieces. Put on baking sheets (I have large baking sheets and did 6 across and 5 down. They puff up a little but don't really spread too much). Your 3 colors WILL separate from each other while you're cutting the log and/or when they're on the baking sheet. But, no problem ~ just "smoosh" them together (in the log and/or on the sheet). When you get towards the end of your triangle, you may want to push it back into shape (with 3 distinct logs) or just roll those 3 colors into little logs and make a new little triangle log (see photo where I did that with "scraps"). With just enough scraps for 1 cookie, make a little ball from each color and stick that together (photo showing that too).
*** These are AMAZING COOKIES! No matter how bad you think they look before you've baked them ~ or how much you've had to keep poking them back into place ~ they come out baked exactly like they're supposed to be!
Bake for 9-10 minutes until firm to touch. Cool on baking sheets a few minutes, then remove and finish cooling on racks or paper.
Makes about 8 dozen (depends how thick your logs are & how thick you slice the cookies)