Polvorón

Method

1. Heat the oven to 150C. Spread 75 g of plain flour in a thin layer on a baking tray and toast it for 25 minutes, raking it about with a fork every 8 minutes so it colours evenly. It is ready when it is the colour of pale sand and smells nutty and biscuity. Tip it onto a cold plate and leave it to cool completely — warm flour will melt the lard.
2. On a second small tray, toast 30 g of blanched almonds in the same oven for 9 minutes, until pale gold through to the centre. Cool them completely, then grind to a fine meal in a food processor, pulsing so they do not turn oily. In a dry frying pan over medium heat, toast 1 tsp of sesame seeds for 2 minutes, shaking constantly, until they pop and smell fragrant; tip out to cool.
3. Sift the cooled toasted flour into a bowl with 30 g of icing sugar and 0.5 tsp of ground cinnamon — sifting is what gives the polvorón its powdery texture. Stir through the ground almonds and the sesame seeds.
4. Add 30 g of soft lard and rub it in with your fingertips, then press and gather the mixture until it holds together as a pale, sandy dough that clumps when squeezed in the fist. Do not knead it; the less you work it, the more it crumbles.