Pecan Shortbread Cookies Mexican Wedding Cookies Food

PECAN SANDIES (MEXICAN WEDDING COOKIES/CAKE)

Steps:

• Using a hand mixer or a stand mixer with the paddle attachment, cream together the butter and sugar until smooth. Beat in the water and vanilla.
• Stir in the flour and pecans until well blended.
• Cover the dough with plastic wrap and chill in the fridge for at least four hours.
• Preheat the oven to 325 °F.
• Shape the dough into walnut sized balls or crescents. (Crescent shaped are more the traditional Mexican wedding form of these cookies.)
• Place the dough balls or crescents 2 inches apart onto ungreased cookie sheets.
• Bake for 18 to 20 minutes in the preheated oven, until golden.
• Cool on a baking rack, then roll in the confectioners sugar. I don't roll them when they are warm as they still will soak up the powdered sugar while cool and this way they don't get sticky.

PECAN SHORTBREAD

Steps:

• Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
• In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, mix together the butter and sugar until they are just combined. Add the vanilla and almond extracts. In a medium bowl, sift together the flour and salt, then add them to the butter/sugar mixture. Add the pecans and mix on low speed until the dough starts to come together. Dump onto a surface dusted with flour and shape into a flat disk. Wrap in plastic and chill for 30 minutes.
• Roll the dough 1/2-inch thick and cut into 2 1/2-inch squares with a plain or fluted cutter (or cut into any shape you like). Place the cookies on an ungreased baking sheet.
• Bake for 20 to 25 minutes, until the edges begin to brown. Allow to cool to room temperature and serve.

BUTTER PECAN SHORTBREAD COOKIES

Steps:

• Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper or silicon mat.
• In a large bowl with an electric mixer or a food processor, beat together butter and brown sugar until creamy.
• Add flour, ground pecans, vanilla and salt and beat just until it forms a smooth dough.
• Wrap dough in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 30 minutes to 1 hour to allow it to firm up just enough to shape.
• Preheat oven to 325 degrees F (160 degrees C).
• By hand, roll dough into 1-inch balls.
• Place them on the prepared cookie sheet and flatten very slightly (to about 1/2-inch thickness) with the bottom of a glass that has been dipped in flour to prevent the dough from sticking to the glass (If you have a cookie stamp, you can use it to flatten the cookies instead of the glass).
• Place in the oven and bake for 12 minutes or until set and very lightly browned on the bottom.
• Remove from pan and let cool on a rack.

MEXICAN PECAN COOKIES

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C).
• Mash together the flour, butter, pecans, and 1/4 cup of confectioners' sugar in a bowl until the mixture is thoroughly combined and forms a soft dough. Pinch off about 2 teaspoons of dough per cookie, and roll into 3/4-inch balls. Place the balls on ungreased cookie sheets.
• Bake in the preheated oven until the bottoms of the cookies are lightly golden brown but the tops are still pale, 8 to 12 minutes.
• Let the cookies cool completely, then roll in remaining confectioners' sugar.

MEXICAN WEDDING COOKIES

Steps:

• Pre-heat oven to 350F. Line a cookie tray with some parchment paper and set aside.
• Process pecans into a fine nut meal in a food processor. Add all remaining cookie ingredients and process to combine everything together.
• Use a small cookie scoop, or simply gather about 1 ½ tbsp of the mixture and roll into a ball. Place on the prepared cookie sheet, and repeat with remaining dough (you should get about 12 cookies), spacing them out roughly an inch apart.
• Bake in a pre-heated oven for 20 minutes. Then remove and cool the tray on a cooling rack for about 15-20 mins.
• Place the coconut milk powder into a small bowl. Roll / dip each cookie in the bowl to coat in the coconut milk. If you'd like, you can also place some of the remaining coconut milk into a little sieve and dust the cookies some more for a more powdery look. Enjoy!

PECAN SHORTBREAD COOKIES (MEXICAN WEDDING COOKIES)

Steps:

• Combine butter and sugar in a large bowl; beat with an electric mixer until smooth and creamy, about 2 minutes. Add vanilla extract, orange juice, water, and orange zest; beat until blended. Add flour and pecans and mix with a spoon until blended but crumbly. Cover and place in the refrigerator until chilled, 3 hours to overnight.
• Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F (165 degrees C).
• Scoop up about a golf-ball-size of dough and press together into a ball. Flatten and smooth the edges, making sure the dough is firm and not flaky or crumbly, or else cookies will not rise or expand as they bake. Place on an ungreased cookie sheet. Repeat with the rest of the dough.
• Bake in the preheated oven until edges are golden, 15 to 20 minutes. Cool on the baking sheet for 1 minute before removing to a wire rack to cool, 8 to 10 minutes more.
• Sift some confectioners' sugar into a small bowl. Drop a cookie into the sugar, shake the bowl, flip the cookie, and agitate again to cover in sugar. Repeat with remaining cookies, adding more sugar as necessary.

PECAN COOKIE BALLS

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 350°F. Beat butter in large bowl with electric mixer on medium speed until light and fluffy. Add 1/2 cup of the sugar, vanilla, nutmeg and salt; beat until well blended. Stir in flour and pecans.
• Shape into 1-inch balls. Place 1 inch apart on ungreased baking sheets.
• Bake 15 minutes. Remove from baking sheets. Immediately roll hot cookies in remaining 2 cups sugar. Place sugared cookies on wire racks to cool. When cool, roll again in sugar.

MEXICAN WEDDING COOKIES

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 375 F. degrees.
• Beat the butter and 1/2 cup of the powdered sugar in a bowl until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes.
• Add vanilla extract and beat until vanilla is completely incorporated.
• Add the flour to the bowl 1 cup at a time mixing with a hand held mixer until the dough becomes too thick or the mixer begins to strain.
• Slowly add the remaining flour and the finely chopped pecans to the bowl. Continue mixing until the pecans are evenly distributed through out the dough.
• Shape the dough into one and half inch round balls and place on a cookie sheet leaving 2 inches between each cookies.
• Bake for 10 to 12 minutes until lightly golden.
• Remove the cookie sheet from the oven and cool the cookies for 3 minutes or until they are cool enough to handle.
• Drop each warm cookie one at a time into the bowl of the remaining 1/2 cup of powdered sugar. Roll the warm cookies in the sugar coating the cookie thickly on all sides.
• Place sugar dipped cookies on a wire rack and cool completely before storing. Store the cookies in single layers in an air tight container.
• Makes about 48 cookies

BUTTER PECAN MELTAWAYS

Steps:

• Toast the pecan (see Recipe Notes below for how to toast nuts), let cool completely, then finely chop. Set aside.
• In a large bowl with an electric mixer or the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream butter with the sugar until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes at medium speed. Add the water and vanilla and mix in. Add the flour all at once and mix on low speed until the mixture comes together as a moist dough. Stir in the (cooled) finely chopped nuts.
• Using a cookie scoop or a tablespoon measuring spoon, scoop a portion and dough and roll into about 1-inch balls. Continue shaping balls with the remain dough, placing onto a baking sheet. (*I like to roll all the dough and pack then onto a smaller baking sheet that will fit nicely into my fridge. When ready to bake, I transfer them to another baking sheet, spacing them apart and baking in a couple of batches).
• Before refrigerating, you can flatten the balls slightly to make more of a "button-shaped" cookie or leave them as balls, if you prefer.
• Place baking sheet into the fridge uncovered and chill 15-30 minutes.
• Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 325F.
• Bake in preheated oven, with balls spaced about 2 inches part, for about 20 minutes. Bake in batches, if necessary, leaving remaining dough in the refrigerator while you bake the first batch.
• Remove from oven and let stand about 1 minutes. Roll warm cookies in icing/confectioners' sugar while still very warm and place onto a wire rack to cool further. Once cooled to just slightly warm, roll again in powdered sugar to thoroughly coat.
• Allow to cool completely, then transfer to an airtight container. Store at room temperature for up to 2 weeks or freeze for up to 3 months.

PECAN MEXICAN WEDDING COOKIES

Steps:

• In a large bowl beat butter 30 seconds.
• Add 1/2 cup powdered sugar and cinnamon; beat until combined.
• Beat in 2 teaspoons water and vanilla.
• Stir in flour and pecans with a wooden spoon.
• Shape into 1-inch balls.
• Place on ungreased cookie sheet 1 inch apart.
• Bake in 325 degree oven 20 minutes or until lightly browned on bottoms.
• Transfer to wire rack.
• Cool.
• Place 1 cup of powdered sugar in plastic bag.
• Add cookies few at a time; shake gently to coat.
• I make these 1 month ahead of time and freeze them before their final coat of powdered sugar.
• I thaw them out before sugaring.