Paçoca

Significance

These cookies are eaten for all kinds of occasions in Brazil but are made most often for Festa Junina, a festival derived from mid-summer celebration in Europe brought to Brazil by the Portuguese. The Nativity of St. John the Baptist occurs during the festival so these cookies are often made for the feasts. Having made this recipe several times already I can attest to the addictiveness of these treats. While this recipe is a slight variation on the traditional Paçoca, which consists of just peanuts, salt, sugar, and occasionally cassava flour, I would argue that it is more delicious. Since the Brazilians reading this will no doubt take issue with that statement, I will just tell you to replace the biscuits with 200 grams of sugar for the Brazilian version. It is important to note that only one of these should be used, NOT both. Sugar for the Brazilian version, or Biscoff biscuits for alternative. You can get both the biscuits and the salted roasted peanuts packed in the amounts listed below so this recipe is about as easy as it gets.

Preparation:

1) Add all of the ingredients to a food processor and blend until about the texture of coarse damp sand.

2) Shape the dough on a parchment lined sheet pan into a layer about 1 cm thick, or thicker if you prefer.

3) Pre-cut the flat dough into whatever shapes you like (I did squares because I'm lazy).

4) Put the sheet pan into the oven and dry (NOT BAKE) the cookies at about 80°C or as low as your oven goes with the door open for about an hour. The goal is to dry the cookies out a bit, not to bake them.

5) Let the cookies cool and break them into the pieces and store in an air-tight containter. Try not to eat them all in one sitting!