These Mexican Wedding Cookies require few ingredients and taste so good. Because they are dusted with powdered sugar, they seem to melt in your mouth. I made these for a New Years party because it was a cold day in Austin and they reminded me of snowballs, which some people actually call these cookies.
Recipe by Paula Deen and found on Food Network.com
1 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
1/2 cup confectioners’ sugar, plus more for coating baked cookies
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for dusting hands
1 cup pecans, chopped into very small pieces
Using an electric mixer, cream the butter on low speed.
Add the sugar to the butter and mix until it is smooth.
Beat in the vanilla.
Scrape down the sides as necessary.
Next we gradually add the flour with the mixer on low speed.
Mix in the pecans with a spatula.
With floured hands, take out about 1 tablespoon of dough and shape into balls. Some people shape them into crescents.
Continue to dust hands with flour as you make more cookies.
Place onto a prepared cookie sheet. I placed parchment paper on my cookie sheets.
I made half the recipe with round cookie balls. The other half I flattened with the bottom of a glass.
Preheat oven to 275 degrees and bake for 40 minutes.
The really don't look that different after they are cooked, they don't brown very much at all. The low temperature and long baking time simply dries them out and makes them super crunchy.
When the cookies are cool enough to handle but still warm, roll in additional confectioners' sugar. I used a sifter to lightly dust the cookies with sugar. 
Dusting worked well for the flat cookies, but it didn't cover the round cookie balls as well so I ended up rolling these around in powdered sugar to get an even coating on all sides. Thanks for another great recipe Paula!
I love these. We call them Russian Tea Cakes-the recipe is from my mom's side of the fam. and they are from Nebraska. But yes, in TX we call them Mexican Wedding Cookies. We primarily make them in the ball form. While still a little warm we roll them in the confectioners sugar, let them cool and then roll them again. Reminds me of Christmas.
ReplyDeleteThis looks I can pull this off .... and this will be much better than the store bought. They always seem to be to dry.
ReplyDeleteHey Mandy, I love your site! I remembered to look at it last night after getting home from the HOST program, can't wait to try some of your recipes and to see the posting on our lunch yesterday!
ReplyDeleteIt was nice to meet you, have a great day.
Laura Hebert
Mexican Wedding Cookies are some of my favorites cookies...and I had almost forgotten about them!!! Here I go bookmarking another one of your posts as a "must make." :)
ReplyDeleteLove the way the light is coming through on your pictures!
I love Mexican Wedding Cookies...growing up we lived right next to a very authentic Mexican market and they made them fresh everyday with a slew of other mexico inspired pastries...they were so good...thanks for the memory!
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