Galletas de Nata (Christmas cookies) (Central and South American / Spanish / Portuguese)

These little and dainty cookies are eaten all throughout the Spanish-influenced world for Christmas especially, their name meaning precisely that ('Christmas cookies'). Grandmas and mothers all over the Spanish speaking world are preparing these Latin cookies whenever the winter holiday season approaches. I love their subtle spice and delicious buttery consistency, and they're also useful as a go-to cookie dough recipe for various extra additions and fillings: bits of nuts, dried fruit, chocolate morsels and so on. 
Try these Spanish Christmas cookies for yourselves and see just how delicious they are. As a note, they tend to be a little more soft and crumbly than other cookie recipes, so maybe they're not the ideal cookies to be used for cookie sandwiches and similar confections. 
Recipe source: here.

Last year: nothing
Two years ago: nothing
Three years ago: nothing
Four years ago: Porkkanalaatikko (Carrot casserole for Christmas) (Finnish).
Five years ago: Răcituri de pui (Romanian chicken and garlic aspic).
Six years ago: Amaretto chocolate truffles.
Seven years ago: Vanillekipferln (Austrian vanilla crescent cookies).
Eight years ago: Spicy turkey fillet in coriander-tomato sauce and Butter and smoked salmon pasta.



Ingredients:

• 280 g (2 1/4 cups) flour
• 1/2 tsp. baking powder
• 1/2 tsp. whole anise seeds, crushed
• 1/4 tsp. ground cinnamon
• 1/4 tsp.ground nutmeg
• 1/4 tsp. kosher salt
• 200 ml (3/4 cup) heavy cream, chilled
• 113 g (8 tbsp) unsalted butter, softened
• 200 g (1 cup) sugar, divided
• 1 tbsp. lemon zest
• 1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
• 1 egg yolk, mixed with 2 tsp. water for the egg wash (I skipped the egg wash)

Whisk together the flour, baking powder, anise seeds, cinnamon, nutmeg, and salt in a bowl; set aside. In another bowl, beat cream with a whisk until slightly thickened (it should still be pourable); refrigerate until ready to use. In another bowl, beat 3/4 cup of sugar and the butter on the medium-high speed of a hand mixer until pale and fluffy, about 3-4 minutes. 

Add beaten cream and zest, and beat until smooth. Add dry ingredients, and mix until just combined.

Refrigerate the dough for at least 2 hours or overnight, so it hardens up enough to hold its shape during baking.

Heat the oven to 350 F (180 C). Shape little balls of dough and put them with some space apart on a baking sheet lined with baking paper.

Bake them for 18-20 minutes or until their edges get golden. Allow them to cool and then carefully remove them from the tray (they tend to be crumbly while hot).

It's done, dig in! :)