Mexican wedding cookies are treats I’ve had and each time thought, “Wow, these are ridiculously good!” Buttery, nutty goodness that just melts in your mouth (that might sound a touch wrong, but you get the idea.) They often are sold at Mexican restaurants and various pastry shops, but aren’t too commonly found.
Mexican wedding cookies’ origins and ceremonial function are as their name implies: they are served at Mexican weddings! They are also pretty much identical to Russian tea cakes.
I always like to bring in baked goods to work after my weekend (it’s a great way to get your coworkers to like you more), so in honor of my 2015 GastroResolution to master a new dish, I picked these little butter nuggets. And guess what? They are incredibly easy. I consulted the illustrious internet for recipes and found the results very consistent across the board. I went with an old Paula Deen recipe- please don’t judge me! Hey the recipe involved copious amounts of butter, so I assumed it was her territory…
Needless to say they were easy to make and turned out great. Now I have another go-to cookie to add to the repertoire.
Mexican Wedding Cookies
Adapted from Paula Deen & The Food Network
Ingredients:
1 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
1/2 cup confectioners’ sugar, plus more for coating baked cookies
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for dusting hands
1 cup pecans, toasted, cooled then chopped into very small pieces
Directions
Preheat the oven to 275 degrees F. Line cookie sheets with parchment paper.
Using an electric mixer, cream the butter and sugar at low speed until it is smooth. Beat in the vanilla. At low speed gradually add the flour. Mix in the pecans with a spatula. With floured hands, take out about 1 tablespoon of dough and shape into a crescent or just roll into balls. Continue to dust hands with flour as you make more cookies. Place onto prepared cookie sheets. Bake for 40 minutes. When cool enough to handle but still warm, roll in additional confectioners’ sugar. Cool on wire racks.
THE GASTRONERD 
I loved the blog heading, “You don’t need to be Mexican or getting married to make these”. Ha ha!
The cookies are amazing. Can I use coconut sugar instead of this sugar?
Thanks! I haven’t tried these with coconut sugar, but given that there is no lemon and it’s just regular granulated sugar, it should work fine! It just may have a slightly different texture.
Coconut sugar takes more time to blend than normal sugar, its texture is coarse, but it enhances the flavor and people fond of the coconut flavor, enjoy it to the fullest, that is what my learning says.