Mexican Wedding Cakes

After I made these, Corey informed me that his favorite cookie was a mexican wedding cake.  No not snickerdoodles or double chocolate chip like he previously told me, but now mexican wedding cakes!  Another chance to try something new!  I found the recipe via the Joy of Baking.

Ingredients:

2/3 cup toasted nuts (I used walnuts)

1 cup unsalted butter, room temperature

1/4 cup powdered sugar

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

2 cups all-purpose flour

1/4 teaspoon salt

Topping:

1 cup powdered sugar, sifted

Method:

Toast nuts at 350 in the oven for about 8 minutes until fragrant. Once the nuts have cooled completely place them, along with 2 tablespoons of the flour from the recipe, into your food processor, and process until they are finely ground (but not a paste).  Or you could just roughly chop and and toss with the flour which is what I think I would do next time.  That way you would get bigger pieces. 

Beat the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in the vanilla extract. Add the remaining flour and salt and beat until combined. Stir in the nuts. Your dough will be fluffy and sort of crumbly:

Cover and refrigerate the dough for about one hour or until firm. 

Preheat oven to 350. Form the chilled dough into 1 inch balls and place them 2 inches apart on the baking sheets (I used ungreased and they didn't stick at all). Bake for about 12 - 15 minutes, or until the edges of the cookies start to brown. Remove from oven and place on a wire rack to cool for about 5 minutes.

Meanwhile, sprinkle about 1/2 cup of the powdered sugar on the bottom of the baking pan and then place the slightly cooled cookies on top of the sugar. Sprinkle the remaining 1/2 cup of sugar over the top of the cookies (or you can just roll the cookies in the sugar). Store in an airtight container. Makes about 2-3 dozen cookies.  Yum!
I didn't get to catch a picture of these before they were gone (with the help of buster who stole the last 5 out off the plate when we were upstairs!), but below is the picture from the joy of baking website.  You must try these when they are still a little warm out of the oven.  Phenomenal!