Mexican Wedding Cookies

Another very easy cookies to make.

Most of the time when I make these cookies, I shape it to crescent shape. It looks more delicate, just like the texture and taste of the cookies. Though there are times that I just roll it into balls, especially if I have to make dozen dozen batch of it. Or, experiment with different shape, oval, etc.

I was hoping to make crescent shape today, but somehow (I wonder if it's the heat in kitchen, from all day grilling and baking) the dough, as I roll it, goes soft pretty quickly, which make it harder to shape to crescent. So, round shape it is. :)

These cookies remind me of 'kue salju' ('snow cookies') we used to have while growing up. I wasn't particularly fond of it - too sweet and what a mess, eating 'em, sticky sugary powder. Mexican wedding cookies is not as dense as kue salju and has little crunch to it, from its coarsely chopped pecans.


What:
- 1 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
- 1/2 cup confectioner sugar
- 1 tsp vanilla
- 1 3/4 cup all purpose flour
- 1 cup chopped pecans

How:
- Beat butter and sugar until smooth and creamy.
- Add in vanilla.
- At low speed, gradually add flour. Once well combined, mix pecans in the dough with spatula.
- Shape dough to balls and prefereably, into crescent shape. Or, it can be pressed into oval or round shape.
- Bake in preheated 350F oven for 10-15 minutes, or until the bottom of cookies golden brown. Cookies will bake very quickly.
- Once cooled, dust more confectioner sugar on top of it. I like to dust only very little before storing it. Then, dust more just before serving.

Note:
The dough will have very creamy soft consistency/ texture, hence, make the rolling somewhat tricky. I found that especially in very hot day, even when the dough stays in its shape, the heat from my hand soften the dough more as I roll it. I guess if it becomes really hard to work with, try to put it in fridge for few minutes.