Pinoy Polvoron

Who would not love eating polvoron?  When I was still in the Primary School, I would always buy them in a store near the school.  They were always wrapped in colorful plastics.  Flavours could be pinipig and peanuts.  Today, you can even buy them commercially at Goldilocks with flavours like oreos and cashews.  Polvoron is of Spanish origin (wikipedia).  Polvo (pulbo) is a Spanish term for powder.  The original Spanish polvoron is a flaky, soft, rich, shortbread-type cookie made with flour, lard or vegetable shortening, powdered sugar and cinnamon.  The mixture is molded into oval or round shapes with a polvorera (a special mold which allows the formed sweets to be discharged easily without crumbling). Once molded, polvoron is wrapped in cellophane or Japanese paper. Like I said, the ones that we have in the Philippines has so many variations-- thanks to the creative Filipinos!

Ingredients
1 1/2 c powder milk
1 c plain flour
1/2 tsp salt
1 c butter, melted
1/2 c peanuts or any nuts that you like or you can add crashed oreos (just remove the cream first)

Procedure
Toast the flour in a wok until it becomes light in color.  Keep on stiring so as not to have a burnt flour.
Remove the flour from fire.
While waiting for the flour to cool a bit, sift powder, salt and salt in a big bowl.
Melt the butter in the microwave.
Mix the all the dry ingredients together (including the flour and nuts or oreos).
Put in the butter.
Use your hands in mixing them well.
Use a polvoron molder in molding the polvoron.  If you do not have one, just use your muffin pan or cookie cutter (just make sure that the polvoron is well compact and solid).
Wrap with individual plastics or japanese paper.  You can also just keep them in an airtight container even without wrapping them.
Refrigerate before eating.

A comment or two will be appreciated...