Recipes

[amyb]

Hello bakers~so...I'm a much better cook than "baker", but love to give it a go every now and then...always "an adventure."

I never got to making any Christmas cookies before the holiday, but was determined to at least make the pecan "snowballs" (some people call them Mexican wedding cookies)...today.

Several recipes online, all about the same, so I picked one off Google "Sally's baking addiction" site..

Just took them out, and tasted one...actually delish and they taste like I always remember them.

However...mine didn't remain in balls (like snow balls), but melted and flattened more like a domed cookie. I refridgerated my dough overnight, then let sit at room temp, like recipe said. But, recipe said let set 30 min, and I did 1 hr...feeling like dough still looked too hard. Maybe that was it...I let it get too warm and cookies melted down? Any tips out there for next time?  Like I said...still taste yummy, but the traditional Christmas cookie trays usually look like "snowballs."

TIA for any advice!

[RedTop]

One of my daughters got hooked on these cookies one year, and made them frequently.   They were never round snowball like cookies, always dome shaped.   

[camelot]

My experience making snowball cookies is they do stay snowball shaped after baking. I haven't made them in a while. Sounds like you compared several recipes and all the ingredients & directions were similar? My only 2cents, is try marthastewart.com and look at her recipe. I always have success with her recipes.

Good for you for baking this holiday season.

P.S. another idea is go to kingarthur.com. Look at their recipe and they have bakers on hand to call and ask your ?s or concerns. 

[Pook]

@amyb I am a huge cookie baker and have seen and made these cookies that came out both ways.  Nothing says they have to be round - some recipes with pictures show them more flattened.  It's the taste that matters.    

[amyb]

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@Pook wrote:

@amyb I am a huge cookie baker and have seen and made these cookies that came out both ways.  Nothing says they have to be round - some recipes with pictures show them more flattened.  It's the taste that matters.    

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Me too...I've seen them both ways, and they definitely taste right (sitting here right now trying not to keep snacking on them all day today, lol)....but....still I am curious how people keep them round...hmmm.

I did check MarthaStewart.com as @camelot  advised above...similar recipe (of course ole Martha added an extract flavoring to tweek) but directions were the same...

[amyb]

@camelot Just saw your "PS"...thank you, good idea about KingArthur.com and ask the bakers there...as there was no one to ask on Martha...

Thanks everyone, so far, for your responses and encouragement!

[KingstonsMom]

I make these a lot and mine always remain in the shape of a ball (or sometimes I shape in crescent shape) as mentioned upthread.

I highly suspect that the problem was in you removing the dough from the fridge for one hour, meaning they came too close to room temperature to hold together, therefore they 'spread' when baked.

[deepwaterdotter]

This is my mother's recipe for "Wedding Cookies".  I don't remember her leaving the dough in the refrigerator before baking:

2 cups pecans 

2 cups flour

1/2 tsp salt

16 tbsp (1 cup) softened butter

1/3 cup superfine sugar (the finer grains help keep the round shape)

1 1/2 tsp vanilla

1 1/2 cups powdered sugar in a dish

Coarsely grind 1 cup pecans in food processor for 15 seconds.  Pour into bowl.  Coarsely chop rest of pecans in food processor for 5 seconds.  Pour into bowl with first cup of nuts.  Stir in flour and salt.

Beat butter and sugar in separate big bowl with electric mixer until fluffy.  Beat in vanilla.  Slowly blend in nut/flour mixture until dough sticks together.

Roll dough into tablespoon-sized balls and place 1" apart on parchment-lined baking sheet.  Bake in 325 degree oven until tops are faintly golden, about 18 minutes.  Let cool on sheet for 5 minutes,  then let cool on wire rack.

Roll cooled cookies in powdered sugar to coat, then roll again for a second coat of sugar.  

[Mom2Dogs]

I make theses cookies every Christmas...the bottoms are flat when they come out of the oven..so I guess I would say mine are domed shaped.  I never gave it a thought!  

Once you sprinkle a couple times with the powdered sugar they look like snowballs!

[candys mine]

You could call them SnowBanks.