Marranitos & Puerquitos (Soft Mexican Gingerbread Pig Cookies)
Makes 16 Large Cookies This is the cookie cutter I used.
Recipe by Esteban Castillo on November 28, 2018
Rating
4.09 stars (146 reviews)
Ingredients
4 ½ cups All-Purpose Flour ((562 g))
1 ½ teaspoons Ground Cinnamon
1 teaspoon Ground Ginger
½ teaspoon Ground Allspice
1 ½ teaspoon Baking Powder
1 teaspoon Baking Soda
1 teaspoon Salt
½ cup + 2 tbsp Unsalted Butter (, room temperature (143 g))
1 ⅓ cup Dark Brown Sugar (, packed (277 g))
¼ Cup Molasses ((84 g))
¼ cup Buttermilk ((57 g))
2 Large Eggs (, room temperature)
2 Eggs (whisked together)
Categories
Dessert
Cuisine
Mexican
Steps
In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, cinnamon, ginger, allspice, baking powder, baking soda and salt, then set aside.
In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream the butter and brown sugar on medium speed for about a minute. Reduce the speed to low then slowly pour in the molasses and buttermilk. Add the eggs, one at a time, making sure that ones mixed in before adding the next. After the eggs have been mixed in, add one third of the dry ingredients, wait for it to incorporate, then add the next third, wait and then add the rest.
At this point, the cookie dough is going to be soft, so divide your dough into 4 equal sized balls, then wrap them up with plastic wrap and place them in the refrigerator for 4 hours to chill.
Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.
Once the dough has chilled, roll your dough out on a well floured surface to abut a 1/2 inch thickness. Use your cookie cutter to cut out the cookies, then evenly space them on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper. (You should be able to get 4 cookies per ball of dough) I like to dip my cookie cutter in a little bit of flour to make sure I get clean edges.
Once you have your cookies on your cookie sheet, brush on the egg wash, and bake for 10-12 minutes, until the cookies have risen and the tops have begun to crack.
Let your cookies cool for about 10 minutes before serving. Serve warm.
Reviews
RUDINA PONCE on 2025-08-13 (5 stars): Thee best Puerquitos ever!! Moist not dry gr8 flavor. I applaud u Esteban. Do u have a recipe for hojarascas?
Colton D. Nash on 2023-12-02 (5 stars): Delicious recipe!
Yvonne on 2023-10-26 (5 stars): Thank you so very much for sharing this recipe, it is my favorite cookie! I live out on the Olympic Peninsula in Washington state and the owners of our only local panaderia sold up and retired after decades of making the best pan dulce my family has ever had. I will now have to make my own Puerquitos, so this recipe is a godsend.
Marranitos Mexican Pig Shaped Cookies (Gluten-Free/Keto) « LikeHotKeto on 2023-04-28 (5 stars): […] found several marranitos recipes with ginger, and I added ginger one time while recipe testing. Daniel actually preferred them with ginger. I […]
Niza on 2022-12-24 (5 stars): A great recipe!..
edith reyes on 2022-12-22 (5 stars): Loved them ! Make them every year now ! Thank you I’ve tried several of your recipes and yes they are all fabulous .
RUDINA PONCE on 2022-11-07 (5 stars): Loved it. Super easy and fun watching those little Peggy's bake. Well balanced ingredients. Mine did not crackle on top but were moist and tastes great. Big hit. Question? Is there something I didn't do that I didn't get the cracks on top? I followed UT to the T
The Not-So-Great Defector Bake Off Ignores Mexican Week - All Things Newz on 2022-10-10 (5 stars): […] No! But tonight, I am going to make marranitos for myself. I deserve some little pig cookies to dunk into my coffee after this whole experience. […]
Pat Garza on 2021-12-22 (5 stars): Hello Esteban,
I just love your Marriantos cookie recipe. This was my first time to bake these cookies, and it certainly won’t be my last; as a matter of fact I’m going to bake more today.
Thank you for sharing!
