Mexican Wedding Cookies is a nostalgic, melt-in-your-mouth Christmas cookie recipe. These buttery shortbread cookies with finely chopped nuts are rolled in powdered sugar (twice, for good measure) and will look as good as they taste on your holiday cookie platter.
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Mexican Wedding Cookies, aka, Russian Tea Cakes, Snowball Cookies, Swedish Tea Cakes, Italian Wedding Cookies -- all these different names refer to the same thing, a rich butter cookie filled with chopped nuts and rolled in powdered sugar.
This old fashioned Christmas cookie recipe is straight from my grandmother’s recipe box — except they were called Mexican Wedding Cakes. I used her recipe exactly and didn’t change a thing because it’s perfect.
But this recipe is easy enough to customize if you want to jazz it up with some chocolate chips, dried fruit, or a dash of cinnamon.
These little Mexican Christmas cookies were one of my favorite cookies on the goodie platters my grandma made during the Christmas season.
They’re tender with a buttery texture, crumbly in the best way (like pecan sandies), not too sweet, and literally melt in your mouth. They're also super easy to make.
More Treats for the Holiday Season
Why Do They Call Them Mexican Wedding Cookies?
Short answer: Heck if I know. No one else seems to know either.
Long answer: The exact origin of this Mexican cookie recipe isn’t quite known, but food historians sure have tried to figure it out. They have, however, traced its possible beginnings back to medieval Arabic cuisine. And some sources think that these cookies made their way to the US by the Spanish who called them polvorónes — a crumbly shortbread cookie made with ground almonds that’s rolled in powdered sugar.
But no matter the source, everyone agrees that this Mexican wedding cookies recipe is a holiday tradition. And a darned delicious one at that.
Why You’ll Love This Recipe
- Classic Christmas cookies everyone loves
- Perfect for cookie exchanges, holiday goodie trays, and special occasions any time of year
- Tender buttery cookie that’s not too sweet
- Simple recipe with basic ingredients
- Easy Christmas cookie recipe
Ingredients
Butter. Use room temperature unsalted butter so it will easily cream together with the powdered sugar.
Powdered sugar. A little powdered sugar, aka confectioners’ sugar, goes into the cookie dough, but most of it is used for rolling the cookies -- once when they’re warm and again when they’ve cooled.
Flour. Carefully measure the flour by spooning it out of the bag or canister and leveling off the top of the measuring cup with a knife. If you scoop it out, you may end up with more than the recipe calls for and too much flour
Finely chopped pecans. Grandma’s recipe card just said “nuts” and I can’t remember what kind she used. I use pecans. You can also use walnuts, almonds, pistachios, or hazelnuts. If you’re not usually into nuts in cookies (like me), try grinding them finely in a food processor.
How to Make Mexican Wedding Cakes
Finely chop or grind pecan pieces with a sharp knife, food processor, or place them in a freezer bag and crush them with a rolling pin.
In a large bowl, use an electric mixer to cream the softened butter, ½ cup of powdered sugar, and vanilla together.
In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour and salt.
Slowly add the flour mixture to the butter mixture and mix until it forms a stiff dough. Add the nuts and mix on low speed until just incorporated.
Place the dough in the refrigerator and chill for at least one hour or until the dough is firm.
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
Prepare baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone baking mats.
Scoop the chilled dough with a small cookie scoop or 1 tablespoon measuring spoon. Roll the dough between your hands to form 1-inch balls. If the dough is too firm, let it sit at room temperature for a few minutes.
Place the balls about 2 inches apart on a cool baking sheet.
Bake for 12-14 minutes or until the cookies are set and just barely golden.
Place the cookie sheet on a cooling rack and let the cookies cool for a few minutes.
While the cookies are still warm, roll them in powdered sugar and place on a wire rack to cool completely.
Roll the cooled cookies in powdered sugar again.
Store cookies in an airtight container between layers of parchment paper or wax paper at room temperature for up to one week.
Make Ahead
Freeze the dough. Wrap a batch of dough in plastic wrap and place it in a freezer bag. You an also roll the dough into balls, freeze them on a baking sheet, and pop them in a freezer bag. Freeze the dough for up to one month. Thaw in the refrigerator and bake as directed.
Freeze the cookies. Prepare the cookies as directed and let them cool completely. Freeze baked cookies in a freezer bag for up to 3 months. After defrosting, some of the powdered sugar may have dissolved, so roll them in a fresh new coating of powdered sugar.
Recipe Variations
Use your imagination to make up your own version of Mexican Christmas cookies.
Nuts: Use your favorite nuts: pecans, walnuts, almonds, hazelnuts, or pistachios. Finely grind the nuts, keep them chunky, or try ½ of each! Toast the nuts to add even more nutty flavor.
Add-ins: Shape the dough around a Hershey’s Kiss. Mix in mini chocolate chips or M&Ms, dried cranberries, or crushed candy canes with the nuts.
Flavorings: Add a little bit of almond extract, lemon or orange zest, or cinnamon to the dough. Add a little cinnamon to the powdered sugar for the second roll.
Expert Tips
Use room temperature butter, which isn’t soft and squishy. If the butter is too soft, it can cause your cookies to flatten. To quickly soften butter, cut it into pieces and let it sit at room temperature for about 15 minutes.
Chill the dough for at least an hour before rolling into balls. This will help keep the cookies from spreading.
If the dough is too stiff to work with out of the fridge, let it sit at room temperature for a few minutes.
If the dough is too dry, add a few drops of water.
If the dough is too sticky, add a little bit more flour.
Recipe FAQs
This Mexican Christmas cookies recipe is pretty crumbly by nature. But if they’re too crumbly, there could be a couple of reasons: too much flour or overbaking.
Once the dough is chilled, it should be firm and easy to shape into round balls. If the dough seems dry, try adding tiny bits of water into it.
If the baked cookies are too crumbly, they were most likely overbaked. Try baking the next batch for a couple less minutes.
If the cookies flatten in the oven, the butter may have been too soft, they may not have enough flour, or the dough wasn’t chilled enough.
After the dough has chilled, if it still feels sticky and is difficult to form into a smooth round ball, that may mean there isn’t enough flour. Try adding a little more until the dough is easy to shape.
Chill the dough between batches and use a cold baking sheet for each batch of cookies.
Recipe Essentials
This small cookie scoop is just the right size for making 1-inch dough balls.
I used my small KitchenAid chopper to finely chop the pecans for these cookies in seconds flat. Mine is silver, but it comes in tons of cute colors like pistachio and guava glaze!
More Christmas Cookie Recipes
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Mexican Wedding Cookies
Ingredients
- 1 cup softened butter 2 sticks
- ½ cup powdered sugar
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- 2 ¼ cups flour
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- ¾ cup finely chopped pecans
- 1 ½ cups powdered sugar, for rolling
Instructions
- Finely chop or grind pecan pieces with a sharp knife, food processor, or place them in a freezer bag and crush them with a rolling pin.
- In a large bowl, cream the softened butter, ½ cup of powdered sugar, and vanilla together with a mixer.
- Whisk the flour and salt together in a separate bowl. Slowly add the flour mixture to the butter mixture and mix until it forms a stiff dough. Add the nuts and mix on low speed until just incorporated.
- Chill the dough for at least one hour in the refrigerator until firm.
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Prepare baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone baking mats.
- Use a small cookie scoop or 1 tablespoon measuring spoon to scoop dough. Roll it between your hands to form 1-inch balls.
- Place the balls about 2 inches apart on a cool baking sheet.
- Bake for 12-14 minutes or until the cookies are set. The bottoms will be very light brown.
- Let the cookies cool on the baking sheet for a few minutes. While the cookies are still warm, roll them in powdered sugar and place them on a wire rack to cool completely.Roll the cooled cookies in powdered sugar again.
Notes
Storage
Store cookies in an airtight container between layers of parchment paper or wax paper at room temperature for up to one week.Make Ahead
Freeze the dough. Wrap a batch of dough in plastic wrap and place it in a freezer bag. You an also roll the dough into balls, freeze them on a baking sheet, and pop them in a freezer bag. Freeze the dough for up to one month. Thaw in the refrigerator. Freeze the cookies. Prepare the cookies as directed and let them cool completely. Freeze baked cookies in a freezer bag for up to 3 months. After defrosting, some of the powdered sugar may have dissolved, so roll them in a fresh new coating of powdered sugar.Tips
- If the dough is too stiff to work with out of the fridge, let it sit at room temperature for a few minutes.
- If the dough is too dry, add a few drops of water.
- If the dough is too sticky, add a little bit more flour.
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