These cookies have many names. Snowball Cookies, Mexican Wedding Cookies and Russian Tea Cakes. They are very popular during the holidays because of the copious amounts of white powdered sugar that is used to roll them in to create a snowy look. Interesting tidbit about the origin of this recipe. They have roots from the Middle East where ghee or clarified butter is used instead of butter. This creates a melt in your mouth texture.

Ingredients for cookies:

½ cup pecan halves

1 cups confectioners' sugar

¼ tsp vanilla salt

1 cup unsalted butter

½ tsp vanilla extract

1 ¾ cups all-purpose flour

Sugar for Tossing Cookies:

1 ½ cup powdered sugar

Directions:

Put pecans, 1 cup of the sugar and salt in food processor and blend until nuts are ground fine. Cut the butter into tablespoon-size pieces and add it to nut mixture with processor running. Process until smooth. Add vanilla extract. Add flour and continue blending, using pulse button of processor.

Scrape dough into a bowl. Cover tightly and refrigerate one hour. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Scoop dough with tablespoon and form 1-inch balls by rolling dough between palms (lightly flour hands, if necessary). Place balls 1 1/2 inches apart on ungreased cookie sheets.

Bake 15 minutes or until the cookies barely begin to brown. Cool for 2 minutes. Use small spatula to lift cookies from sheets. Roll the cookies in the remaining 1 ½ cups sugar.