Buttery, powdered sugar covered shortbread cookies.
This is the final recipe of my 2015 Christmas Yumminess Countdown!
Whether you call them Snowballs, Russian Tea Cakes or Mexican Wedding Cakes, one thing is for sure: these cookies are a classic. And they are a classic for a reason! Who doesn’t like what is basically butter and flour drenched in powdered sugar? And they fit well on any holiday cookie platter!
Sorry for getting this recipe to you a little late but the good news is that the ingredients are super simple and they don’t take long to make! Thus they would be a perfect last minute addition to your Christmas cookies!
Mexican Wedding Cakes are a shortbread cookie dough and then after you bake them you just dump them in powdered sugar. A lot of people like to add pecans to these… I like them better without pecans to get in the way of all the sugar but that’s just me! If you prefer jam to powdered sugar (which let’s face it… jam is just fruity sugar), then you can make these Jam Thumbprint Cookies / Russian Tea Cakes!
After baking these cookies, you coat them in powdered sugar while they are still warm. Since they’re warm, the first dunk makes a sort of sticky, mushy layer of sugar. So I like to roll them twice in powdered sugar…once to get the sticky layer of powdered sugar and then another time a few minutes later to get the fluffy powdered sugar coat.
Happy Mexican Wedding Cake eatin’!
And Merry Christmas!
- 1 cup salted butter, softened
- 1 cup powdered sugar, divided
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 2 cups flour
- ⅛ teaspoon salt
- Preheat oven to 350 F.
- Beat the butter and ½ cup powdered sugar with an electric mixer until completely smooth.
- Add in the vanilla.
- In a separate bowl, mix the salt and flour together.
- Add the flour mixture to the butter mixture until completely combined. Scrap down the sides to make sure all the butter is fully incorporated.
- Roll the dough into small balls.*
- Place the balls of dough on a greased cookie sheet or a cookie sheet lined with parchment or a silicon baking mat.**
- Bake for 16-18 minutes or until they are lightly brown on the bottom edges.
- Cool for 2 minutes on the cookie sheet.
- Place the remaining ½ cup powdered sugar in a bowl.
- Drop cookies into the bowl and toss around. Brush off any huge clumps of powdered sugar because they will get really goopy.
- Once you have coated all of the cookies once, the powdered sugar will sort of seep into the cookies and there will be a goopy layer on the cookies. Now go back and toss all of them again to get a visible powdered sugar coating.
- If you want you can go back through and toss them in the powdered sugar a third time once they are cool.
** I like to use a silicon baking mat because it makes the cookies less greasy and they brown nicely.
Adapted from Sweets Eats cookbook
Lovin’ the Shortbread? Try my Shortbread Cookies dunked in chocolate and sprinkles!
ENjoyed the countdown series! Happy New Year!
Hi Kaitlin,
Enjoying your yummy blogs. Your chocolate dipped shortbreads look delicious! Your recipe is very similar to the one we use.
Happy Baking!
Thank you Ms. Nelson! Glad you like my posts!