Mexican Wedding Cookies
Instructions:
- A simple cookie whose resemblance to snowballs makes
them a fun holiday cookie. They’re fragile, so handle
them gently when you roll them in the powdered sugar.
- 1/2 pound (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
- 11/2 cups confectioners’ sugar, plus more as needed
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1 cup chopped walnuts, hazelnuts, pecans, or almonds
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- Use an electric mixer to beat the butter until light and fluffy. Add 3/4 cup of the confectioners’ sugar and cream together.
- Combine the flour, salt, and chopped nuts in a bowl. Add the dry ingredients to the dough and beat until just combined. Stir in the vanilla. Shape the dough into a disk, wrap in plastic, and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes or as long as 2 days (or wrap very well and freeze indefinitely).
- Heat the oven to 350°F. Roll the dough into 1-inch balls and bake on ungreased baking sheets until the tops are just turning brown and the bottoms are golden brown, 10 to 12 minutes.
- Put the remaining sugar in a pie plate or shallow bowl. Cool the cookies on the sheets just enough so you can handle them; use a spatula to transfer them in batches to the plate of sugar. Roll each cookie in the sugar until coated and then transfer to a rack to finish cooling.
- Roll them in the sugar again once cooled. Store in a tightly covered container at room temperature for no more than a day or two.
- Chocolate-Filled Mexican Wedding Cookies.
- In Step 2, add 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon to the dry ingredients.
- When you roll the dough into balls in Step 4, tuck a chunk of bittersweet chocolate (about the size of a raisin) into the center of each ball. Proceed with the recipe, mixing a spoonful of cocoa powder in with the confectioners’ sugar before coating if you like.