Christmas Cookie Party

It’s time for a party! A cookie party! Yum.

A bunch of bloggers are kicking off the holiday season in style with a cookie exchange! Jz from the blog A Reluctant Bitch encouraged us to post our favorite holiday cookie recipe today.

I adore cookies! Cookie Monster is my favorite Sesame Street puppet. Om nom nom. I am not much of a baker, but I used to help my mom bake hundreds of cookies for church events – from lebkuchen that had to be started a month ahead of time, to sugar cookies, currant bars, icebox cookies, shortbreads, thumbprints with raspberry jam, molasses cookies, spritz, ginger bread men, and something she called “snowballs.” I’ve learned many people call them “Mexican Wedding Cookies” or “Polvorones.” Whatever you call them, they are a wonderful little sweet balls of cookie, nuts and sugar. You know how much I adore eating balls! And nuts!

Here’s the recipe and a photo. Enjoy!

Snowballs

aka Mexican Wedding Cookies

Ingredients

1 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
1/2 cup confectioners’ sugar, plus more for coating baked cookies
1 teaspoon of vanilla extract
1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for dusting hands
1 cup pecans or walnuts, chopped into very small pieces

Directions

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

Line cookie sheets with parchment paper.

Using an electric mixer, cream the butter and sugar at low speed until it is smooth. Beat in the vanilla. At low speed gradually add the flour. Mix in the pecans with a spatula.

With floured hands, take out about 1 tablespoon of dough and shape into a ball. Continue to dust hands with flour as you make more cookies. Place onto prepared cookie sheets about an 1/2 inch apart.

Bake for 15 minutes.

When still warm, roll in additional confectioners’ sugar. Cool on wire racks.

Eat! Savor!

You may also see recipes in your favorite blog, or you can see the entire list below! Click for cookies!

Autumn in jeans