The Sweet Parlor · cookies · holiday · make-ahead

Mexican Wedding Cakes

Name: Mexican Wedding Cakes
Total time: 45 min
Yield: 48 cookies
Ingredients: 227 g unsalted butter, softened; 60 g powdered sugar; 5 ml vanilla extract; 240 g all-purpose flour; 2 g Diamond Crystal kosher salt; 100 g pecans, finely chopped; 120 g powdered sugar for rolling

Powdery, tender butter cookies rolled in two coats of powdered sugar — buttery, crumbly, and barely sweet. Made with finely chopped pecans. Roll them warm, let them cool, roll them again. Also called Russian Tea Cakes, Snowballs, and about fifteen other names depending on whose grandmother made them.

~15 min prep 12–15 min bake ~45 min total

Spoon cost

Effort ●●○○○ Time ●○○○○ Quick

Vegetarian

Cookiesfrom one batch

Units

Ingredients

Don't overbake. The tops should stay pale. Check the bottoms — barely golden is right. A few extra minutes turns them sandy and dry.

Easier, if you like

Diamond of California Pre-Chopped Pecans (baking aisle, Kroger / Target / Walmart) — already finely chopped to the right size. Saves the chopping step entirely.
A stand mixer makes the creaming step effortless — 3 minutes on medium and you're done. A hand mixer works fine too.

Method

Cook's notes

Two sugar coats is the move. The first coat while warm absorbs into the surface and creates a thin base layer. The second coat after cooling is the visual finish — the fluffy white exterior people expect. Don't skip either one.

Don't overbake. These should look pale on top — not golden. The bottoms will be very faintly golden at the edges. A few extra minutes makes them dry and crumbly instead of tender.

They freeze beautifully. Freeze after the first sugar coat. Thaw at room temperature, then roll in powdered sugar again before serving.

Mexican or Russian? Same cookie, different name by region. Also sold as Snowballs, Butter Balls, and Kourabiedes in Greece. The cookie is wherever grandmothers are.

Vegetarian as written; nut-swap and GF easy

Walnuts instead of pecans: same quantity, finely chopped. Slightly more assertive flavor, equally good.

Hazelnuts: same quantity, finely ground. Lightly toast them first for a deeper flavor. This version is close to Italian nut crescents (Vanillekipferl).

Gluten-free: Bob's Red Mill 1-to-1 Gluten Free Baking Flour (baking aisle, most grocery stores) swaps 1:1 by weight. Texture is slightly more crumbly but still excellent.