Mexican Tea Cookies (Snowball Cookies)
Buttery and nutty like shortbread, these snowball cookies, also known as Mexican tea cookies, are rolled into little balls and coated in a thick layer of powdered sugar. Sweet, simple, and irresistible!
Servings: 6 dozen
Ingredients
- 1 cup 114 g pecans
- 8 ounces 1 cup butter, softened
- 1 cup 124 g powdered sugar
- 2-½ cups flour 300 grams
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- ¾ teaspoons salt
Sugar Coating
- 2-½ cups 312 g powdered sugar
- ¼ teaspoon cinnamon
Instructions
- Pre-heat the oven to 350°. Place the pecans on a baking sheet and toast them in the oven for 10 to 15 minutes until their color has deepened. Stir half way through the baking time to ensure they are toasted evenly. Remove from oven and cool completely.
- Place the pecans in a food processor fitted with the metal blade and pulse until they are finely ground to the consistency of corn meal. Do not over process them or you will have nut butter.
- Add the butter, and powdered sugar to the food processor. Pulse a few times then add the flour vanilla and salt. Run the food processor until the dough comes together in a clump.
- Wrap the dough in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 6 hours. Optionally, scoop the dough with a teaspoon and shape into small balls, then stick the shaped cookie dough in the fridge to chill.
- Pre-heat the oven to 375°. Grease two baking sheets or line them with parchment paper. Combine the 2 ½ cups of powdered sugar with the cinnamon in a large bowl or pie plate and set aside.
- Roll level teaspoons of dough into small balls and place them about an inch apart on the baking sheets. Bake 12 to 15 minutes until a pale golden color. Transfer the hot cookies directly to the powdered sugar mixture and roll them to cover completely with the sugar. Set aside to cool completely (the powdered sugar will melt into the hot cookies and look goopy). After completely cooled, roll the cookies once more in the powdered sugar.
Notes
For a nice thick coating of sugar, dip the cookies in powdered sugar twice. First roll the hot, freshly baked cookies into the powdered sugar right away. This first coat will look wet and goopy but let them sit and cool off completely. Once they are completely cooled, roll them in the powdered sugar again. This second coating of powdered sugar will give them a beautiful white coat and a thick layer of sugar
Nutrition
Serving: 1cookie | Calories: 130kcal | Carbohydrates: 14.2g | Protein: 1.2g | Fat: 8g | Saturated Fat: 3.5g | Cholesterol: 14mg | Sodium: 47mg | Fiber: 0.6g | Sugar: 8.3g
