Mexican Wedding Cakes

These nutty butterballs have a traditional cookie flavor with a crumbly texture that melts in your mouth. We use the recipe from Everyday Food’s Holiday 2006 issue, with the variation of adding vanilla, and forgoing the ground cinnamon.

1 cup pecan halves

1 cup all-purpose flour

¼ cup granulated sugar

⅛ teaspoon salt

1 stick unsalted butter at room temperature (we use salted butter)

1 cup confectioners’ sugar

Preheat oven to 325°. Line baking sheet with parchment paper.

In a food processor, pulse pecan halves, flour, granulated sugar, and salt until mixture resembles coarse meal. (It needs the coarse texture to hold its shape.) Add the room temperature butter after cutting into tablespoon-sized pieces, and pulse until a dough forms. Shape dough into a disk, and wrap tightly in plastic. Refrigerate until firm, 30 to 60 minutes.

Using 1 level tablespoon dough per cookie, roll into balls. Place on baking sheets 1½ inches apart. Bake, rotating sheets halfway through, until cookies are just golden around the edges, 20 to 25 minutes. Cool five minutes, then roll warm cookies in a bowl of confectioners’ sugar. Place onto wire racks to cool fully.