Pecan Puffs (Snowball Cookies) by Colleen

Snowball Cookies also know as Mexican Wedding Cookies

Most people call these Mexican Wedding Cookies.  This recipe is from some ancient cookbook of my mother’s with an editor that probably thought no one would eat something with a FOREIGN NAME.  I’m guessing  Pecan Puffs was the editor’s idea of something “safe.”  I personally would have gone with Snowball Cookies as I always make these at Christmas and that is what they make me think of..

---Colleen

Pecan Puffs

Makes about 32 cookies

½ cup butter, softened

2 Tablespoons sugar

1 Teaspoon vanilla

1 cup pecans, measure first then grind*

1 cup cake flour (or one cup sifted and measured regular flour minus 2 Tablespoons)

1 cup sifted powdered sugar (I usually put mine through a fine mesh sieve)

 Cream butter and sugar and add in vanilla.  Mix in flour and nuts.  Roll dough into small balls and place on cookie sheet.  Bake at 300 degrees for about 35-45 minutes, depending on the size of the cookies.  They should brown slightly but not be dark on the bottom.  You can tell when they are getting close by the amazing aroma of toasted pecans.

 As soon as you take the cookies out of the oven roll them in the powdered sugar and place on wax paper to cool.  Once they are cool, roll again in the sugar and store in an air tight container.  Sprinkle a little leftover powdered sugar on the cookies in the container.  When you go to serve them, roll them around in the sugar a bit to make them look pretty. 

Makes about 32 cookies (but this is such a bunch of work and a mess with the powdered sugar that I always double the recipe.  They freeze really well.)

  

*The KEYS to this recipe are 1) pecans – do not use walnuts and 2) a nut grinder.  Do not chop the nuts or put them in the food processor.  Well you can put them in a food processor if you absolutely must, but include a little of the sugar when you process them to keep the released oils from making the nuts clumpy.  The nut grinder produces the best result.  The texture and fluffiness of the ground nuts makes the cookies really smooth and delicate.

This is what I use:

It is marketed as a cheese grinder (for Parmesan, hard cheeses) which is great  if you are having pasta and want to get that fresh Parmesan on your dish.  But it is what I use for the pecans and you can also do chocolate in it.  It isn’t for soft cheeses.  Anyway, it produces a fine nut powder without releasing the nut oil as you might have happen in a food processor.  However, if you want to make the cookies and don’t have the Zyliss, then put a little of the granulated sugar from the recipe in the bowl of the food processor when you grind the nuts.  This will help prevent the nuts releasing too much oil.  And don’t overprocess.  You are not making nut butter.  Just trying to get a fine grind on the nuts.  Hand chopping will not get the nuts finely ground.  Most “Mexican Wedding Cakes” are basically a shortbread cookie with roughly chopped nuts.  And they tend to be a harder cookie.  This recipe makes for a soft buttery cookie. 

---Colleen