I adore Polvorón and wanted to have a go at creating a nut free version. What other flavours could I incorporate into this delectable sweet treat and not diverge too far from the traditional ethos of the the Polvorón which mainly consists of nuts…? What else but chocolate and cinnamon!

Using the same method as my original Polvorón attempt I replaced the nuts with dark chocolate and added a generous dose of cocoa powder.

And here we have it… a flatter chocolatey and chewier version of Polvorón!

Perhaps because they lack the nuts to hold them together and chocolate (unlike nuts) makes when baked, the little chocolate balls spread into perfectly round chocolate chip cookies.

I chose to use caster sugar rather than icing sugar to enhance the crunchy texture. It also added a wonderful chewiness to the cookie, with the sugar and chocolate combining to create a toffee in the centre of the crumbly cookie! Yum! They have been very popular in my house!

With a light dusting of icing sugar they look very Festive. The hint of cinnamon conquers up Christmas.These are would make a perfect homemade present, or to be eaten by the handful with a large bucket if tea. I really rather enjoyed making this Spanish Christmas cakes/cookie recipe up!

I’m looking forward to my further Polvorón flavour experiments!

Things I used to make Chocolate Polvorón

Makes about 40 small biscuits

Preparation: 15 minutes

Chilling time: 30 minutes

Baking time: 18-20minutes at 170degrees c

• 220g butter (1 cup or 2 sticks)  room temperature
• 250g caster sugar (2 cups or 240 grams) – rather than icing sugar to add an extra crunch that the nuts would normally add
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 250g all purpose flour (2 cups or 240 grams)
• 100 g (1 cup) dark chocolate coarsely ground/chopped
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 30g cocoa powder
• icing sugar to dust the biscuits with

I’m entering these experimental Spanish Polvores into Chris’s Cooking Around the World Spain Round up. Pop on over to his blog for a round up of some inspirational international cooking! Thanks for reading!