Rich with butter and nuts, these little shortbread-like “cakes” seem to melt in your mouth. Roll these cookies twice in confectioners sugar; the first rolling allows the sugar to melt into the cookie, the second rolling gives the finished snowy-white topping, making a festive favorite holiday cookie. This cookie is known by many names including Mexican Wedding Cakes, Swedish Tea Cakes, Italian Butter Nut Cookies, Butterballs, and Snowballs.

Ingredients:

Dough:

1 cup unsalted butter, room temperature

½ cup confectioners (powdered) sugar

2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

2½ cups all-purpose flour

¾ cup finely chopped walnuts or pecans

¼ teaspoon salt

Topping:

About 1 cup confectioners (powdered) sugar

Tip: Use standard measuring cups and spoons or scales for accurate measuring.

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Baking sheets may be ungreased, lined with parchment paper, or lined with a non-stick baking mat.
   
   Dough:
2. In a large bowl of an electric mixer, combine butter, confectioner’s sugar, and vanilla extract; mix together on medium speed until combined. Use a rubber spatula to scrap down the side of the bowl as needed. Add flour, chopped nuts, and salt, mixing just until combined.
   
   
3. Shape dough into balls, about 1” in diameter.  Tip: An ice cream scoop is ideal for making uniform-sized cookies.
   
   Bake:   
4. Place balls about 1 inch apart onto baking sheets. Bake 10 to 12 minutes or until cookies are set but not brown.
   
   
5. Remove baking sheets from oven.
   
   Topping:
6. While cookies are still hot from the oven, roll each ball in powered sugar until completely coated.
   
   
7. Place cookies on wire cooling racks to let cool. When completely cooled, either roll the cookies in confectioners sugar again until completely coated, or use a fine mesh sieve and sprinkle the tops of the cookies with the confectioners sugar. This second rolling finishes the cookies with a snowy-white topping.
   
   Makes about 3½ dozen cookies.
   
   TheBakingPan.com
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