Mexican wedding cookies are sweet and buttery bites of shortbread goodness. Made with toasted walnuts and cinnamon these cookies are perfect for the holidays but great all year round.Â
There is nothing better than a buttery shortbread cookie. They don’t take long to make and these delicate cookies are a perfect addition to your holiday baking traditions. While these are called Mexican Wedding cookies there are so many different versions of this cookie found all over the world. If you are like me I just cannot get enough of these little morsels.Â
In this recipe
What I love about this recipe is that there are only 7 ingredients and all of them can normally be found at home. If not they are easy to get ahold of.Â
Butter:Â You want to make sure that this is room temperature and not salted. If you want an extra buttery cookie use a higher fat butter like European style butters.Â
Pecans: These are the normal nut used in this recipe however if you have specific nut allergies or like others better you can use almonds, hazelnuts, walnuts, and even macadamia nuts.Â
Powdered sugar: For this recipe you will want to use powdered sugar as it is keep the cookie from being too gritty and make for the classic crumb of shortbread.
Toasting the nuts
One of the things that makes these cookies so wonderful is the toasted pecans inside. You don’t have to toast them but the extra step is well worth it. If you have a food processor then toast the nuts whole. This will help prevent the smaller bits from burning. Then once they are toasted use the food processor to chop them as finely as possible. If the nuts are already chopped then you will want to keep an eye out to make sure that they don’t burn. Constantly stir the nuts to help prevent burning as well.Â
Measure your flour well
One of the biggest things that can cause these cookies to become too dry is to not measure your flour correctly. The best way to measure is by weight. My recipes have a conversion on them to change to weight if you need help with the conversions. However if you do not have a scale handy then you will want to fluff your flower with a spoon and then spoon the flour into the measuring cup and level it off with the back of a knife or other straight edge. This will keep from getting too much flour in the cookies and drying them out.Â
Scooping the Mexican wedding cookies
One of the things I like to do so that I have cookies of all the same size is to use a scoop. For this recipe I use the 2 tablespoon scoop. This makes sure they cook at the same rate as well as look uniform once baked. One of the other great things is that is normally the amount of cookie dough that you will use with most other cookies. So it will make for a useful and handy tool for all of the cookie and holiday cookie baking.Â
Looking for other holiday cookie ideas?
Mexican Wedding Cookies
Equipment
- Sheet pans
- Parchment paper
- Stand mixer with paddle attachment
- Sauté pan
- 2 tablespoon scoop
- Mixing Bowl
Ingredients
- 1¾ cups all-purpose flour
- 1½ cups powdered sugar divided
- 1 cup pecans finely chopped
- 1 cup butter unsalted
- 1½ teaspoons vanilla extract
- ½ teaspoon cinnamon
- ¼ teaspoon salt
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350°F, 177°C or gas mark 4 and line two sheet pans with parchment paper.
- Over medium high heat toast the pecans for 2-4 minutes or until they become fragrant. Remove from the heat and the pan and set aside. Chop in food processor if you roasted them whole.
- In the bowl of a stand mixer with the paddle attachment, on medium high speed, beat together the butter for 2 minutes until it becomes smooth and reduce the speed. Add 1/2 cup of the powdered sugar and salt and mix until the powdered sugar has been mixed in. Increase the speed and beat until it becomes lighter in color and fluffy. Add in the vanilla and cinnamon.
- Reduce the speed to low and add the flour, mix just until well combined then add in the pecans and mix until combined.
- Refrigerate the dough for 1 hour.
- Use a 2 tablespoon scoop or scoop out 2 tablespoons of dough and roll it into your palm. Place about an inch apart on the baking sheets.
- Bake for 12 to 15 minutes or until the cookies are set and the bottom of the cookies will start turning brown. Make sure to let the cookies cool in the pan for at least 5 minutes.
- Place the remaining powdered sugar in a bowl and gently roll the cooled cookies and set on a cookie rack. Roll for a second time once all of the cookies have been coated.
Nutrition
