Mexican Wedding Cakes
These are often called Snowballs or Russian Tea Cakes. We didn't see a lot of snow in Texas, but we did have pecan trees. This Texas version has pecans and often goes by the name Mexican Wedding Cakes. Sometimes they are shaped as crescents and called Pecan Crescents.
Servings 36 cookies
Cost 5
Ingredients
- 1 cup unsalted butter, softened (or use salted and only a tiny pinch of salt), (228 grams)
- ½ cup powdered sugar (60 grams)
- ⅜ teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 2 cups all purpose flour** (250 grams)
- 2 cups pecan halves, toasted, cooled, finely chopped
- 1 ½ cups powdered sugar for rolling
Instructions
- Toast the pecans by laying them on a baking sheet and baking at 350 for about 8 minutes or until they are fragrant. Toasting time may vary with size and type of pecan. Let cool completely, then chop very fine.
- In a large mixing bowl, beat butter, powdered sugar and salt until creamy. Beat in vanilla.
- Add flour and stir just until blended, then stir in the very finely chopped pecans.
- Cover and chill for 1 to 3 hours.
- Shape dough into 1 inch balls and place on ungreased cookie sheets about 1 ½ inches apart.
- Bake one sheet at a time at 350 degree F. for 15-18 minutes. Remove from oven and let cool for 3 minutes. Toss in sugar. Let cool completely then roll in more powdered sugar
Notes
This is an old recipe that originally called for 1 ¾ cups flour with no weight. 1 ¾ cups flour can weigh anywhere from 220 to 245 grams. To keep these from spreading, it's safer to go with the 250 grams or a light handed 2 cups.