Don’t wait for Christmas, enjoy a traditional favorite with a Mexican piña twist today!

Every Christmas, I wait for homemade cookies and other favorites, like a succulent turkey filled with stuffing baking in the oven or a classic Christmas pudding brimming with hard sauce. And it’s about this time of year too, when my taste buds have been starving for about nine months, that I ask myself: why? Why do we savor these delicacies only once a year, when we can enjoy them any time we choose?

I guess it’s the time of year that makes these foods so special. The celebration of a very special birthday, one that changed the world. The family-friend get-togethers, the parties to celebrate the holiday, even the season of the year. Having grown up in Western Pennsylvania, where it often snowed on Christmas, the association between winter and Christmas was deep. The two went together like, well, love and marriage. 

So, when I moved to the southern United States and then to Mexico, it was difficult to think that Christmas occurred when the flowers bloomed. But you come to adjust and it certainly doesn’t change your heart or your tastebuds. 

A couple of weeks ago, I was longing for a Christmas cookie, a classic sugar variety swimming in a sweet sugar glaze. For Christmas, my cousin makes the most delicious orange cookies I’ve ever had, and I was longing for one — or a dozen. And then I found a unique twist on this old favorite, and it reminded me of Mexico. 

When I used to think of pineapples, I would think Hawaii, and I’d guess most Americans do the same. But now I think differently. The pineapple, or piña, is everywhere in Mexico. You see them at local fruit and vegetable stands and all over the supermarkets. But how did pineapple become such a prominent fixture of Mexican cuisine? 

It all started in 1906, in the small town of Loma Bonita, Oaxaca, where an Illinois native by the name of Frank Peters arrived as a scout to buy some land for a prominent doctor in the U.S. who wanted his property cleared and planted. At the same time, Peters bought a 200-acre tract of land for himself. 

Finding many crops did not do well in the hot, dry climate, he made a trip to nearby Tezonapa and bought pineapple plants of the Cayenne variety, which thrived on his property. He then bought more plants and by 1910 he was harvesting 20,000 pineapples a year. Prospering, he acquired more land until he owned 7,400 acres. Cuttings from his original plants produced between 40,000 and 60,000 tons of pineapple per year, processed in local canning factories. 

So back to cookies: How do we incorporate the delicious piña into a sweet delicacy and turn it into a classic Christmas favorite? Here’s a recipe for you. Make a test batch, then do it again for Christmas. These cookies will become a family favorite.

Mexican piña Christmas cookies

Ingredients

For the cookies

• 1 cup butter, softened to room temperature (mantequilla)
• 1 cup granulated sugar (azúcar estandar)
• ½ cup  brown sugar, packed (azúcar moreno)
• 1 egg (huevo)
• 1 tsp vanilla extract* (extracto de vainilla)
  Mexican brands noted for intense flavor: Villa Vainilla; Vainilla Totonac’s; Molina Vainilla
• ¾ cup crushed pineapple, drained and juice reserved (piña triturada enlatada)
• ¼ cup all-purpose flour
  Note: I have yet to find proper all-purpose flour in Mexico and recommend ordering from the U.S.
• 1 ½ tsp baking soda (bicarbonato de sodio)
• ½ tsp salt (sal)
• ¼ tsp nutmeg (nuez moscada molida)

For the icing

• 2 cups powdered sugar (azúcar glas)
• 4-6 tbsp reserved pineapple juice
• Optional: Red or green tint (food dyes) for Christmas (colorantes alimentarios, rojo o verde)

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 375 F (191 C).
2. In the bowl of a stand mixer, use paddle attachment to mix cream butter, granulated sugar and brown sugar until it begins to lighten in color.
3. Add egg and vanilla extract, mix to combine. Scrape down sides of bowl as needed.
4. Add crushed pineapple and mix until incorporated.
5. In a separate mixing bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda, salt and nutmeg.
6. With the mixer on low speed, gradually add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients. Mix only until combined and a soft dough forms.
7. Scoop out dough and roll into balls. Place on an ungreased baking sheet. Bake for 8-10 minutes, or until golden-brown.
8. Remove from oven and cool on the baking sheet for a couple of minutes before transferring to a cooling rack to cool completely.
9. To make the icing, whisk together powdered sugar and 4 tbsp of pineapple juice. If needed, add more juice, ½ tbsp at a time, until preferred consistency is reached. Add red and or green tint to make them Christmasy! You want the icing thin enough to dip the cookies into, but not so thin that it runs off the cookies.
10. When cookies are cool, dip the tops into the icing and return to cooling rack so the icing can set.