Mexican wedding cookies, Russian Tea Cakes, Snowball Cookies…whatever you call them, these delicious little buttery balls are nutty and irresistible! We used pecans but they would also be tasty with almonds or any nuts you like. I have also made them for a group without nuts just in case of allergies and they were still so good!
Mexican Wedding Cookies are crumbly, buttery, nutty cookies that I can’t seem to get enough of. They are more of a shortbread-type cookie that melts in your mouth rather than a chewy cookie. We have an ongoing debate in our house about which are the best, chewy or crunchy cookies. I always lean toward the crunchy cookies while my husband is all about soft, chewy cookies. I’ll take cookies in any form really, but these melt-in-your-mouth type cookies really have my heart.
Our Mexican Wedding Cookies have just SIX ingredients and are simple to throw together. The hardest part is waiting for them to chill before baking.
Here’s what you will need to make Mexican Wedding Cookies:
- 1 cup butter at room temperature
- 1/2 cup powdered sugar+1 cup for rolling
- 2 teaspoons vanilla
- 1/2 tsp. salt (we used salted butter as well)
- 3/4 cup pecans, finely chopped
- 2 cups flour
Pro tip: Nuts have oils in them that can go rancid if not properly stored. Most nuts will say on the package to refrigerate, but we keep ours in the freezer for longer shelf life.
My Dad grew up in Southern Georgia and I was raised in Utah. My grandparents would send our family a large package of pecans from Georgia and we always had some in the freezer. Pecans always remind me of home.
Ready to whip some up?
Start with butter that is at room temperature. Some microwaves have a soften setting to speed things up in case you forget to get it out of the fridge soon enough. Cream the butter and powdered sugar together until light and fluffy.
NUTS:
To finely chop our pecans we used our Pampered Chef Food Chopper. My little guys LOVE to help with this part. If you don’t have a chopper (you totally should by the way) you can chop them with a knife or put them in a ziploc bag and beat them with a rolling pin. That always works well to relieve a little stress!
I should also mention that toasting the nuts first will lend to a nuttier cookie. It doesn’t take much time and is worth the effort. We totally forgot that step this time though and they were still delicious.
Go ahead and add the nuts, vanilla, and salt and mix them together. We love this Mexican Vanilla we found on Amazon.
LAST INGREDIENT:
Finish the cookie dough by adding the flour and mixing until just incorporated. Try not to over mix and don’t worry if the dough is a little crumbly, it is just as it should be. Cover and refrigerate the dough for 1 to 2 hours.
SCOOP:
Once the dough is nice and chilled it’s time to roll it into balls. We used our Medium Scoop from Pampered Chef. These scoops are so handy! It makes it much easier to get the cookies all the same size. This scoop is approximately 2 Tbsp. and we were able to get 24 cookies.
ROLLING, ROLLING, ROLLING:
Roll each dough ball into powdered sugar before placing it on the cookie sheet. I used a Silpat baking mat on my cookie sheet. If you don’t have anything like that, parchment works great as well. Luke really loved that I let him “help” roll the cookies in the sugar. These cookies don’t have any eggs or leavening agent so they will not rise or spread much when baking, so you can place them fairly close together on the cookie sheet.
BAKE YOUR MEXICAN WEDDING COOKIES:
Bake the cookies at 375 degrees Fahrenheit for 12-14 minutes. You want the cookies to be set, but not browned. They are already crumbly cookies, so you definitely don’t want to overbake them. They should look like this right out of the oven, a little cracking but not brown.
Once the cookies have cooled, roll them one more time in powdered sugar and try not to eat them all in one sitting!
These cookies freeze really well but you will want to save the final powdered sugar bath for after you have thawed them. Don’t you wish you could just reach through the screen and grab one?!
If you happen to have a little self-control and have leftovers, store them in an air-tight container. We hope these cookies are a hit in your house. Happy baking!
If you love pecans you should definitely check out Grandma Mildred’s Summer Pecan Pie!
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Mexican Wedding Cookies
Ingredients
- 2 sticks butter room temperature, 1 cup, we use salted
- 1/2 cup powdered sugar
- 2 tsp vanilla
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 3/4 cup pecans finely chopped
- 2 cups flour
- 1 cup powdered sugar for rolling cookies in
Instructions
- Cream together butter and 1/2 cup powdered sugar until light and fluffy.
- Mix in the chopped pecans, salt, and vanilla.
- Add the flour and mix until just incorporated.
- Cover and refirgerate dough for 1 to 2 hours.
- Scoop dough into 1 1/2 inch balls, about 2 tbsp. each.
- Roll each dough ball in powdered sugar before placing them on the cookie sheet.
- Bake at 375 degrees Fahrenheit for 12-14 minutes until set but not browned.
- When cool, roll cookies in powdered sugar again.
- Store in an air-tight container.
