Also known as a Russian Tea Cake or Mexican Wedding Cookies, these wonderful cookies are great any time of the year. I like to include them in my holiday assortment for a little variety. Makes about 4 dozen cookies.
Ingredients
1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened
16 oz. confectioner’s sugar
1 tsp. vanilla
2 & 1/4 cups white flour
1/4 tsp. salt
1 cup pecans chopped or broken into small pieces
Preparation
Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. In a large bowl, combine butter, 1/2 cup of the sugar, and vanilla. In a small bowl, combine flour, salt, and nuts. Work in flour mixture until dough holds together. Using your hands, shape dough into 1-inch balls. Place on un-greased baking sheet and bake 10-12 minutes or until set but not brown.
After removing them from the oven, allow the cookies to cool for about 15 minutes. While they are still warm (but not too hot!) roll the cookies in confectioner’s sugar. The sugar should stick and coat the cookies but not melt. If the sugar melts, let the cookies cool longer and try again. After the first coat of sugar is applied, wait until the cookies are completely cool and roll them in confectioner’s sugar a second time. To package these for gifts I like to put 6 of them in a small plastic sandwich bag and add an extra teaspoon of powdered sugar to the bag.
