Mexican Wedding Cookies

 So, this past week, I went to a Mexican wedding (my own, in fact, thank you), and I thought I was being clever by making Mexican wedding cookies for dessert. Unfortunately, no Mexican  that came had ever had such a cookie or heard such a name (although they were so enamored with the cookies that they asked me to make more), which made me realize that I have never seen a Mexican wedding cookie in any of the bakeries that I've been to. That then inspired me to go online and do some research, which pointed me in the general direction of New Mexico's official state cookie, the biscochito, which here in Mexico, we call polvorones, and at any rate, they're made from a pretty different recipe (for another day). So, Mexican wedding cookies are not as apt for an Old Mexican wedding as I thought.

However, in my American family, we never called them that anyway; we always just referred to them very uncreatively as pecan balls, and like Russian Tea Cakes, we eat them around Christmas time, so at least the season was apt. As for the wedding, we had a nice, homemade (by my husband) 3-tier tres leches cake, which was very familiar for our Mexican guests.

Ingredients
1/2 pound butter, softened
2 cups flour
4 Tbsp. sugar
2 tsp. vanilla
2 cups ground pecans
1/2 tsp. salt
powdered (confectioners') sugar for rolling

Directions

1 - Put the first 6 ingredients in a bowl. Mix together until they come together and form a very greasy ball of dough. Add more flour if necessary.

2 - Wrap the dough in plastic, and refrigerate for at least 4 hours.

3 - Remove from the refrigerator. Preheat the oven to 325* F.

4 - Remove pieces of dough from the ball and roll them into circles. They should be at least as big as bouncy balls, but they can be bigger if you like, just be consistent in size for an even baking time.

5 - Place on a baking sheet, and bake for 15 to 20 minutes.

6 - Carefully remove the hot cookies from the tray and immediately roll them in powdered sugar.

7 - Enjoy at Christmas, New Mexican weddings or any other time you like.