Snowballs - Use Pecans or Walnuts

My poor, poor laptop. It is over 4 years old and has endured heavy, daily use and travel. It has little system memory left, has 2 of 4 usb hubs that can't be used without it shutting down the system immediately and it's often times so hot the keys have fingernail slashes where the plastic keys have become so soft my fingernails sink as I type.

But... it has my recipes... my food photos... and more. Still, just a heads up that if I disappear for a day or two in the future it might be because my poor computer has finally bit the dust! Have no fear - it's been slowly dying for about a year now and it's still limping along. So! On to the recipes!

I've been making Snowballs (Russian Tea Cakes, Mexican Wedding Cakes) for years and typically use walnuts as the original recipes call for. Sometimes I would use almonds and other times I've used pecans. This year I planned to use pecans as I had bought 2 bags for Thanksgiving pies and had some left over. I smiled when a newsletter from myrecipes.com popped into my email box this week that also called for pecans. I'm not the only one that uses pecans in place of walnuts!






Snowballs

1 cup pecans, roasted and chopped
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 3/4 cups confectioners' sugar
1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon pure almond extract
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 cups all-purpose flour

Heat oven to 350° F.

With an electric mixer, beat the butter and 1 cup of the sugar until fluffy. Mix in the vanilla and almond extracts and salt. Gradually add the flour, mixing until just incorporated. Mix in the pecans.

Shape the dough into tablespoon-size balls and place on a parchment-lined baking sheet. Refrigerate for 30 minutes.

Transfer half the balls to a second parchment-lined baking sheet, spacing them 1 1/2 inches apart. Bake until lightly golden, 18 to 22 minutes. Let cool on the baking sheets for 10 minutes.

Place 1/2 cup of the sugar in a large bowl. Toss the warm cookies in the sugar and return to the baking sheet. Sift the remaining 1/4 cup of sugar over the cookies before serving.