For me, Christmas is all about family, tradition, and lots of food memories. If you have read my past Christmas recipe blogs, you may recall me talking about the foods I ate as a child during the holidays, but most especially the sweet treats my family made.
I come from a real foodie family, with accomplished cooks and bakers everywhere! Perhaps that is why when December comes around, I start itching to make all kinds of sweet treats! I love making candy, from almond and pecan garapiñados (recipe here in the blog), pecan caramels, and caramel, pecan and chocolate turtles. Every year I try something new - this year I will try making Glorias, the sweet milk and pecan candy popular in my hometown (stay tuned for that recipe!). On the cookie department, I love making brown sugar shortbread, Argentinian alfajores and these Mexican Wedding Cookies studded with pecans.
You may wonder why there are pecans in most of my sweet treats? Well, pecans are native to my area of Mexico, and growing up, we had a huge pecan tree right in our front yard. I remember harvesting pecans every year and the nuts made their way into a lot of our recipes. But to be honest, even if I hadn’t grown up with pecans in my front yard, what’s not to like? Buttery, rich and beautifully flavoured, pecans make delicious confections any way you look at it.
So without further ado, here is my recipe for Pecan Mexican Wedding Cookies. If you want to make these nut free, simply omit the pecans. These cookies are so delicious I have to restrain myself (remember I’m not eating sugar these days?). They keep well in a tin, for 2-3 weeks. I have kept them for longer, to be honest, but they sure won’t last long because they’re so good! I hope you make some this holiday season, and enjoy with your afternoon tea or coffee.
Polvorones de Nuez
Pecan Mexican Wedding Cookies
2 cups all purpose flour
½ cup icing sugar, plus scant 1/2 cup for dusting
1 pinch salt
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup unsalted butter, softened slightly
1/2 cup chopped toasted pecans
Preheat oven to 350° F.
Mix flour, icing sugar and salt in mixer bowl. Stir in the vanilla. Add butter and mix until it comes together. Add pecans and mix until completely distributed. If you don’t have a mixer, you may do this by hand, just try to handle the dough the least possible, as the heat from your hands will warm up the butter too much, and the dough will be more difficult to handle.
Shape dough into 3/4” balls, then flatten into circles, and place on un-greased or parchment-covered cookie sheet. You can use a small ice cream scoop to make things easier. If you want a different shape, you may also shape the balls into logs, then bend to make crescents.
Chill cookies for 30 minutes. Bake for 20-25 minutes, or until slightly browned on the bottom.
Cool off completely, then roll thoroughly in icing sugar. Store in a tin.
These keep well for about 2-3 weeks.
Makes about 60 cookies.