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Dessert

Polvorones Puerto Rico-style

Polvorones are shortbread cookies made with wheat flour, sugar, oil, egg, butter, and salt.

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Why it works: Wheat and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,373 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Polvorones Puerto Rico-style

Oven350 degrees Fahrenheit
Time10 minutes

Ingredients

Directions

Make the dough

  1. Blend sugar slowly into the oil.

  2. Add the egg, salt, and butter and blend thoroughly.

  3. Blend the flour in slowly and thoroughly.

Shape and bake

  1. Roll the resulting dough into 1-inch balls and place in an ungreased cookie sheet, flattening each ball slightly with the palm of your hand.

  2. Bake in a preheated oven at 350 degrees Fahrenheit for 10 minutes.

Serve and store

  1. Serve warm as dessert or as a treat anytime throughout the day.

  2. If not devoured immediately, keep Polvorones in a cookie jar for several days.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

803Calories
19 gProtein
32 gFat
108 gCarbs

Counts 6 of 7 ingredients. The other 1 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 6 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Flour1 cup (125g) all-purpose455
Olive Oil1 tbsp (14g)119
Butter1 tbsp (14g)102
Egg1 large egg (50g)78
Sugar1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated49
Salt1 tsp (6g)0
Wheatnot in our table0

One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.

Recipe from the Recipes Wiki (Fandom).

Steps grouped into stages for easier reading; the method is the source's own.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Wheat + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,373 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Wheat + buttertop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,002 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  4. Flour + sugartop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together92,116 recipes

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

  5. Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Flour and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Wheat flour
Provides the structure that holds the dough together as it bakes.
Cooking oil
Supplies the fat that gives the dough its tender, crumbly texture.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps the cookies brown lightly at the edges.
Egg
Binds the dough and adds richness and moisture.
Butter
Adds fat and flavor, contributing to a tender bite.

The step that matters

Blending the flour in slowly and thoroughly. Overworking flour after it is added develops gluten, which makes the cookies tough. Blending just until the flour is fully incorporated keeps the texture tender and crumbly.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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