Snow ball / Mexican Wedding cookies

  These cookies are called as snow balls due to its resemblance to snow. This cookie is also called as Russian tea cake / Butter balls , however it is commonly called as snowball cookies.

This cookie is eaten commonly around Christmas in united states. This cookie was originally originated in Russia during 18^th century as a confection in tea parties.

By 20^th century , these were popular in weddings and Christmas in U.S , known popularly as Russian Tea cookies.

This cookie is called as snowball for their powdery white spherical appearance. These cookies are easy to make and healthy with nuts, usually peanuts are used in original recipe , I used mixed nuts like cashew , pistachios, almond and walnuts.

Requirements :

All purpose flour – 2 cup

Butter – 1 cup

Powdered Sugar – ½ cup

Cashew – 50 g

Almonds – 50 g

Walnuts – 50 g

Pistachios – 50 g

Vanilla essence – few drops ( optional )

Powdered sugar – 1 cup for rolling

Salt a pinch

Method :

Chop the nuts into fine pieces.

Melt the 2 tbs of  butter and fry the chopped nuts till they are golden brown.

Let the fried nuts to cool.

Take a large bowl , mix the butter and powdered sugar well till fluffy.

Add the fried nuts along with the melted butter and stir well.

Add the flour and a pinch of salt , mix well.

Add the vanilla essence and make a soft dough.

Refrigerate the dough for atleast for an hour.

Pre heat the oven to 180 degree Celsius.

Shape into small balls of one inch size , arrange the balls in the baking tray with atleat 2 cm apart.

Bake for 20 minutes or till the edges are brown.

Let it cool for five minutes.

Roll each cookie in the powdered sugar and let it cool completely.

Store the cookies in air tight containers.

Note :

The nuts can be roasted in oven, I suggest frying in butter makes the cookies more tasty.

Instead of rolling each cookie in powdered sugar , can sift the powdered sugar above cookies.

Makes about 30 cookies.