Mexican Bridecakes from @MaddieDayAuthor #Christmas #giveaway

MADDIE DAY: I learned to bake Mexican Bridecakes from my mother, a recipe that came from my father's mother, Dorothy. I can't remember a Christmas without these treats, and I'm seventy!

I bake this simple cookie every year as part of my Christmas sweets repertoire. When I sink my teeth into the crisp buttery squares, I hear my father admiring how "short" they are, meaning how much butter is part of the recipe. 

I included the recipe in Christmas Cocoa and a Corpse, my novella included in Christmas Cocoa Murder, but I recently realized I'd never shared the recipe here!

I had to rewrite the recipe card about ten years ago. The card on which I'd copied my mom's recipe when I was a child was finally almost too yellow and ripped to read.

Both my sisters still make the cookies, as well as my cousins who share Dot as a grandmother. 

What follows is a slightly augmented version of the recipe card, to clarify procedures I will never forget (unless I get to the point where I can't even remember people's names...).

Mexican Bridecakes

Ingredients

I cup (2 sticks) butter, softened

3/4 cup powdered sugar, plus another 1/2 cup for sifting

2 cups flour

1 cup chopped pecans or walnuts (optional)

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon vanilla

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Cream the butter and sugar. Add the vanilla.

Mix in flour, nuts, and salt. (I didn't use the nuts in this version.)

On a lightly floured surface, gather the dough into a disk. 

Wrap and chill for half an hour. Press or roll onto a cookie sheet. Note: it doesn't spread, so you don't need the rim.

Bake for about fifteen minutes, checking carefully to be sure it doesn't burn. Cool on a wire rack.

While still warm, sift powdered sugar over the top. 

I still use my mother's antique sifter.

Cut into inch squares.

Enjoy with cocoa and a good book!

I'll send one commenter a signed copy of Christmas Cocoa Murder. 

Readers: How do you like your cocoa? Do you make a version of this cookie?

My most recent release is Murder in a Cape Cottage, the fourth Cozy Capers Book Group Mystery, which came out in September.

"Scarfed Down," my Country Store novella in the collection Christmas Scarf Murder released the same day.

My next release is Four Leaf Cleaver, out in late January.

Check out all my writing!

We hope you'll visit Maddie and her Agatha Award-winning alter ego Edith Maxwell on our web site, sign up for our monthly newsletter, visit us on social media, and check our all our books and short stories.

Maddie Day (aka Edith Maxwell) is a talented amateur chef and holds a PhD in Linguistics from Indiana University. An Agatha Award-winning and bestselling author, she is a member of Sisters in Crime and Mystery Writers of America and also writes award-winning short crime fiction. She lives with her beau and sweet cat Martin north of Boston, where she’s currently working on her next mystery when she isn’t cooking up something delectable in the kitchen.