Mexican Wedding Cookies | Snow Ball Cookies | Traditional Butterball Cookies ~ Step by Step Pics

Mexican wedding cake/ cookies or snow ball cookie also called Russian Tea cake is a short bread like cookie. They are popular during festive seasons, also for occasions like wedding, christening and even Christmas time. They are similar to the melting moments cookies that I posted long back but the onl difference is that this uses ground nuts like pecan/ walnuts or hazelnuts. Walnuts are readily available here whereas pecan and hazelnut are on the costlier side. I have used walnuts in this recipe. These cookies on itself is mildly sweet before coating with confectioner's sugar. The rolling in confectioner's sugar adds a soft sweet topping with a buttery feel inside. None can stop by eating just one !!

For those who don't know, confectioner's sugar is different from powdered sugar as confectioner's sugar has corn starch in it along with powdered sugar, also called icing sugar. Powdered sugar is simply powdering the granulate white sugar. I have explained the making your own confectioner's sugar in the note section if you don't get hold of store brought confectioner's sugar. Baking these days is hard in my kitchen especially during late afternoons. The direct sun of afternoon falls on our kitchen window and so I try to finish my chores before that as its very hot in there. I try to bake simpler recipes or plan ahead to prepare to bake before afternoon. However these cookies are so simple to put together but the only concern was the use of all purpose flour or maida. I try and use wheat flour or any other healthy flours as much as possible but to get the short bread cookie feel, you definitely need to use maida. And I just ignore the maida part in this cookie which sometimes is inevitable. A good quality butter and a pure vanilla extract yields the best taste of this cookie as there are no more fancy ingredients needed to make this cookie. Do try this out, its so addictive buttery and rich. These cookies just crumble even on touch when warm so be very careful when rolling inn confectioner's sugar. Cool them nice and good before storing.

Preparation time ~ 20 minutes

Baking time ~ 15 minutes

Serves ~ 18-19 cookies

Ingredients

all purpose flour / maida 1 cup (sifted)

unsalted butter(room temperature) 1 stick (113 gms or use 100 gms)

* confectioner's sugar / icing sugar 1/4 cup

vanilla essence 1/2 tsp

salt 1/8 tsp

nuts 1/3 cup (pecan/ walnut / hazelnut)

topping 

confectioner's sugar 1/2 cup

Method

• Sift the flour twice and remove a tbsp of flour and add to powder the nuts in the next step. Add in salt to the remaining flour, keep aside.
• Preheat oven to 350 degrees F and place nuts on a baking sheet and bake for 8 minutes. OR Fry the walnuts in a wok for 3-4 minutes until lightly toasted. Cool completely and grind in a blender until smooth by adding a tbsp of flour.

• In another bowl, add the butter, beat until creamy and soft. Add in the confectioner's sugar, vanilla extract and beat again.
• Add the flour mix in batches until combined well, also finally add the ground nuts mix. Make a dough, cover with a cling wrap and refrigerate for an hour.

• After an hour, pre heat oven to 350 degrees F or 180 degrees C and line a baking tray wit parchment paper.
• Scoop out about a tbsp of dough, shape it as a smooth ball and place on the prepared tray 4 inches apart as the cookie will flatten and spread once baked. Repeat this step till you finish making all balls out of the dough. I happened to bake in two batches and so refrigerated the made balls in the second tray till it was time to bake.

• Place in oven and bake for 12- 15 minutes until the edges look slightly browned and underside is lightly browned. Mine took 14 minutes.
• Remove from oven and cool lightly for 5 minutes and then roll each cookie in the prepared confectioner's sugar. 

• Place on wire rack and cool completely before storing in  air tight containers. The topping may start melting as it sits for days, in that case top with more confectioner's sugar just before serving for the classic look.

NOTES

* Powder 1 cup of granulated white sugar with 1 tbsp of corn starch to get confectioner's sugar. Use this confectioner's sugar for the above recipe.

* If you are using salted butter, skip adding the salt in the flour.

* I have adapted the recipe from joy of baking and I love most of her recipes explained well.