Mexican Wedding Cookies (Pecan Kisses)

Mexican Wedding Cookies are perfectly rich, nutty, powdered sugar-covered balls that melt in your mouth. They’re wonderful on a cookie platter, for the holidays, or any time of the year.

Mexican Wedding Cookies have long been a favorite not only at weddings, but as cherished holiday cookies to serve at Christmas or give away at cookie exchange parties. There’s something so wintry about drifts of powdered sugar dusting buttery, nutty cookie balls. Or are they snowballs?

How to make Mexican Wedding Cookies

First, as always, gather your ingredients. This recipe is very simple, and calls for butter, sugar, flour, pecans, vanilla extract for the cookies, and cinnamon and powdered sugar for the dusting. As I did in the recipe for Cream Cheese Sprinkle Cookies ^[1], I’m using 2 brands you might not be familiar with, but I love them and they’re both from New Zealand. Heilala Vanilla is the finest quality in the world (to my taste anyway!), and Lewis Road Butter is top-notch, as well — grass-fed cows, high quality, utterly (udderly?) delish! As always, though, use whatever brands you are comfortable with. I just want to introduce you to these 2 brands in case you see them in the store. Grab ’em!

Start by creaming the butter. Whip it…whip it good. (Any Devo fans out there?) Add vanilla and sugar.

Add the pecans in. In the recipe, author Ericka Sanchez calls for them being chopped finely. I toasted the nuts first for extra nutty flavor, and stopped short of chopping them finely, choosing instead to leave them a bit bigger. Chop to your liking! 

Once you mix in the flour and pecans, the dough will be thick!

Using your hands, roll the dough into little balls, and place them on a parchment-lined baking sheet.

Bake for 20 minutes. The bottoms will be brown when they’re done, like this.

After they’re out of the oven, put the hot cookies in a bowl of powdered sugar, 2 or 3 at a time. I start out using a spoon to spoon the sugar over them.

Then I use my hands to roll them completely. Don’t be afraid of using too much sugar; you want a good coating of powdered sugar on them. The excess will fall off.

Place the dusted cookies on a cooling rack to cool completely.

Once cool, you can pack them into airtight containers. I’m deluding myself that I will put these in the freezer and pull them out in a month. (The truth is, and ask me how I know this…they taste amazing straight from the freezer, too.)

Are you ready to bake Mexican Wedding Cookies? Let’s go! 

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About the book:

!Buen Provecho! is like saying “bon appetit.” The literal translation is “good benefit” or “I hope this meal benefits you well,” says author Ericka Sanchez, a Los Angeles recipe developer, food blogger and author, who grew up in Mexico and came to the U.S. in third grade. She learned to cook at the foot of her grandmother and mother, and her cookbook expresses her deep appreciation for home-cooked meals, the way she was taught to make them. Many of her recipes are traditional; others she created herself or modernized with ingredients available in California and the rest of the U.S. I know I’ll turn to this cookbook many times for new recipes and inspiration. My copy is littered with Post-it notes representing the many recipes I want to try, including her Purgatory Eggs (Huevos En Purgatorio), White Corn Ceviche (Ceviche de Elote), Fideo Soup (Sopa de Fideo), Creamy Poblano Chile Strips (Rajas Poblanas con Crema), Potato, Broccoli and Carrot Patties with Cotija Cheese, and of course I want these cookies for dessert with all of it! She tells a charming story about her own wedding day, when her guests were admiring these Mexican Wedding Cookies more even than the bride! (That cannot possibly be true…just look at her gorgeousness!)