Tender, buttery cookies with chopped nuts and a blizzard of powdered sugar that melts-in-your-mouth.
I’ve seen them called Italian wedding cookies, Mexican wedding cookies, Russian tea cakes, pecan sandies and butter nuts.
They’re one of the fastest, easiest cookie to make and you can use just about any nut in them – walnuts, pecans and hazelnuts are my favorites.
I grew up on these “snowball” cookies. I can’t remember a Christmas without them . . . the holidays wouldn’t be the same.
I can’t even begin to explain how such an innocuous looking cookie can be so addicting. Eat just one and you’ll be hooked. For life.
We always make double and sometimes even triple batches. They disappear fast.
Everyone loves them.
Tender, buttery cookies with chopped nuts and a blizzard of powdered sugar that melts-in-your-mouth.
Ingredients
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line a large a baking sheet with parchment paper.
- Using an electric mixer cream the butter, sugar and vanilla together on medium speed until well combined.
- On low speed mix in the flour and walnuts.
- Roll dough into 1-inch balls and place on baking sheet 2 inches apart. Bake 11 - 12 minutes until lightly browned around the edges. Roll them in (or sprinkle generously over top) with confectioners' sugar while still hot and then once again when cooled.
- Store in airtight containers up to 1 week.
Notes
Adapted from Sweet Maria's Italian Cookie Tray
I just made these and they weren’t what I remembered when I was young making these. I love them, but this dough was too dry and too hard to roll into balls. I checked other recipes and found this has only 1/2 of the butter, no salt and less powdered sugar that them. I am sorry Reeni.
No need to be sorry Car! I hope you’ll give those other recipes a try so you can bring back those memories. My family loves these – been making them for more years than I care to admit. I get requests from relatives in other states to send them every Christmas. Never had any kind of problem with them.
Update: Just realized this isn’t my family recipe! Oops – this is a new one I tried for the first time this year. They turned out fine for me and I sent them to relatives in place of my normal family recipe.