Sinfully rich cookies to dive into, or give to friends and neighbors
Mmm Mexican wedding cakes. Is there anything they can’t do? Traditionally made with toasted pecans, they’re amenable to accepting cashews, walnuts or hazelnuts instead. Easily assembled and hard to botch (unless the butter is too hard), they’re a great holiday gift for friends and neighbors. Adding almond meal helps maintain the shape.
These buttery, delicate cookies literally are small indulgences — insanely rich and addictive. They’re lovely with coffee, as dessert or as an abandon-ye- all-calories-here ice cream mix-in.
Ingredients
- 1 pound (four sticks) butter, softened
- 3/4 cup powdered sugar
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 1/2 cup chopped, roasted nuts
- 2 1/2 cups flour
- 1/2 cup almond flour/almond meal
- 1 cup powdered sugar, reserved for dusting cookies
Directions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees and line a cookie sheet with baking parchment. With a wooden spoon, blend butter and powdered sugar. (The butter must be soft, or the cookies won’t hold their shape.) Add vanilla and blend. Add the nuts. Add the flour and almond meal/flour. Working with your hands, briskly roll dough into a hazelnut-sized ball. Arrange in rows, with cookies about 2 inches apart, on parchment. Bake for 15-18 minutes, until the cookies are firm to the touch and are faintly golden underneath. Remove and cool for 20 minutes. Roll each cookie in powdered sugar. Store in airtight containers.
