I can’t remember if the Recipe Sunday gals ever did this one before, but hopefully not. They are known to many cultures and go by many names. Italian or Mexican? They’re probably called wedding cookies. Russian? Tea cakes. Despite my Italian heritage, we call them butterballs in my family, and we never made them for a wedding. Nope. Butterballs are for Christmastime, sucka.
My great aunt gave the recipe to my grandmother, who passed the recipe on to my mother. Mom made them every year, and butterballs are what we left out for Santa on Christmas Eve. At some point in the past few years mom scanned the original recipe and sent it to my sister and me. As mom nears retirement, she is officially passing the butterball baton to me. It’s not Christmas without butterballs! It is such a simple recipe: basically a shortbread cookie with nuts, rolled in powder sugar. Here’s what you’ll need:
- 1 cup (2 sticks) of butter softened
- 1/2 cup sugar (you could also use honey or agave, but reduce the amount by nearly half)
- 2 cup sifted flour
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
- 2 cup finely chopped pecans
- powdered sugar
I think the major cultural (or even familial) differences in the recipe come down to what nut you put in them. I think the Mexican version is more likely to have almonds in it. I’ve also seen different versions of the recipe use walnuts. My family always used pecans.
Preheat oven to 300F. Cream the butter and sugar. Add the flour salt and vanilla, and mix it rill good. Fold in the chopped nuts. Form the dough into small balls and place on a baking sheet that’s greased or lined with parchment. Bake at 300F for 40ish minutes. They should be firm and slightly darkened when done. A quick way to see is to lift one up, and if the bottom is a golden brown, they’re probably done.
Let them cool for just a minute, and then roll those hot suckers in the powdered sugar. Then move to a wire rack to finish cooling. Once fully cooled, roll them around in the sugar one more time. Boom! Easy and delicious.
