Description
Tender, light as a cloud, 6-ingredient Italian wedding cookies made from scratch. Ingredients include: pecans, salted butter, powdered sugar, flour, vanilla & almond extract. This is my master recipe. Use it to make inspired variations with almonds, walnuts, pistachios and more.
Ingredients
- 120 g (1 heaping cup) pecan halves
- 227 g (16 tbsp.) salted Kerry Gold butter, cold, cut into cubes
- 80 g (~ 3/4 cup) powdered sugar
- 250 g (2 cups, lightly spooned and leveled) Trader Joe’s Organic all purpose flour
- 1 tsp. pure vanilla extract
- 1/4 tsp. almond extract
Notes & Tips:
- Weigh your ingredients using a digital kitchen scale for best results.
- If swapping nuts, go by the weight amount (not measuring cups). For example, swap 100 g of pecans for 100 g of walnuts. Nuts are different sizes and weights, and will measure differently!
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 F. Line (2x) baking sheets with parchment paper; set aside.
- Pulse the pecans in a food processor until finely ground. Note: you can lightly toast the pecans first, if you’d like. This will give the cookies a stronger, nutty flavor (I don’t always do this).
- In a stand mixer, cream the butter and powdered sugar, about 1-2 minutes.
- Add the vanilla and almond extract.
- Add the flour and ground nuts.
- Using a cookie scoop, portion the dough onto your baking sheet. Alternatively, use a rounded tablespoonful to scoop, and roll the dough in between your palms to create little balls.
- Bake, one tray at a time, for 13-15 minutes until the underside is light golden brown. The tops will be slightly pale.
- Cool on the baking sheet for 5 minutes. Transfer to a wire rack and cool for at least 15-20 minutes more before dusting with powdered sugar.
- To finish: place a small handful of cookies in a large bowl. Dust with a generous amount of powdered sugar using a fine mesh sieve or shaker. With a large serving spoon, toss gently to coat. Tip: try not to use your hands too much to coat; the minute they come into contact with slightly warm cookies, the powdered sugar will melt.
- Return to the wire rack, and repeat to finish coating the rest of the cookies.
- To finish, dust with more powdered sugar as needed.