Pecan Snowball Cookies #CreativeCookieExchange

These little bite-sized pecan snowball cookies are buttery, tender and just the right amount of sweet. They practically melt in your mouth.

I’m calling these pecan snowball cookies because they are chock full of pecans and do look like little snowballs, but all across the interwebs, similar recipes are known as Mexican wedding cookies, biscochitos, polvorones, Russian tea cakes, Italian wedding cookies, Kourabiedes or Greek wedding cookies or butterballs.

Whatever you decide to call them, I hope you do give them a try. This recipe is a fun one to make with children. They love forming the little balls and then rolling the cookies in the icing sugar (twice!) after they’re baked.

Pecan Snowball Cookies

As you can tell from the recipe, the cookie dough isn’t very sweet because sugar is added outside with the double rolling, making these perfect, just as they are. If you are feeling adventurous, you might also want to try my Mexican chocolate (with cinnamon) wedding cookies too.

Ingredients – makes 6 dozen cookies
For the cookie dough:
2 cups, finely chopped, or 210g pecans
2/3 cup or 83g icing sugar
1 cup or 226g butter, softened
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 cups or 250g all-purpose flour

For coating cookies:
1 cup or 125g powdered sugar

Method
Preheat your oven to 325°F or 163°C and prepare a cookie sheet by lining it with parchment paper or silicone liners.

Place the pecans and powdered sugar in a food processor. Pulse the pecans and icing sugar, until the nuts are fairly finely ground with just a few bigger bits.

In the bowl of your mixer, add the pecan mixture, the butter, vanilla and salt. Beat until everything is well combined.

Scrape down the sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula then add half of the flour mixture to the mixer bowl.

Mix on low speed until everything is well incorporated. Repeat with the second half of the flour, scraping down the bowl with a rubber spatula before and after the addition.

Scoop up spoonfuls of the dough and roll the dough between the palms of your hands into balls about 1 in or 2.5cm big. Place the balls on the prepared cookie sheet spaced about 2 inches or 5cm apart.

Keep any balls that don’t fit in the first batch on parchment paper in the refrigerator if your kitchen is warm.

Bake the cookies for about 18 to 20 minutes and then transfer them to a wire rack and let them cool for five minutes.

While they bake, sift a cup of powdered sugar into a mixing bowl. When the cookies have cooled for about five minutes, roll them one or two at a time in the icing sugar to coat completely.

Leave to cool completely then roll them in the sugar again.

Enjoy!

After a hiatus of several months, I am delighted that my Cookie Exchange friends are baking together again. Many thanks to our leader, Laura of The Spiced Life, for organizing us this month. Check out all the other great seasonal cookies we are sharing today!

• Pecan Snowball Cookies from Food Lust People Love
• Chocolate Spritz Christmas Tree Cookies from Karen's Kitchen Stories
• Espresso Sable Sandwiches with Blonde Chocolate Filling from The Spiced Life
• Gevulde Speculaas - Dutch Spiced Cookies from Spiceroots

Creative Cookie Exchange is a great resource for cookie recipes. Be sure to check out our Pinterest Board!

Pin these Pecan Snowball Cookies! 

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Sausage Jalapeño Cheese Kolaches #BreadBakers

These sausage jalapeño cheese kolaches are best made with quality beef franks, sliced fresh jalapeños and sharp cheese. They are the perfect filling for the soft, slightly sweet dough that surrounds them.

Kolaches, as you might remember from my Bread Bakers post three and a half years ago, are breakfast treats that can be either savory or sweet. If you’d like to know more about how such a traditional Czechoslovakia baked good made its way to Texas, check out my apricot kolaches recipe.

I also mention in that post that my personal favorite kolac (<that’s the singular) is one filled with sausage, jalapeños and cheese. This month, at my instigation, my fellow Bread Bakers and I are sharing breakfast breads that are made the night before, so you can have freshly baked breakfast in the morning. True confessions: This theme was completely driven by my desire to make my favorite savory kolaches, since they rise overnight in the refrigerator.

Sausage Jalapeño Cheese Kolaches

This dough is a bit different from the one I made to fill with sweet apricots. It’s a little less enriched – no sour cream, for one – with a little less sugar per kolache. I adapted this recipe from one on The Brewer and the Baker.

Ingredients – to make 10 kolaches
For the dough:
1 package (2 1/4 tsp) active dry yeast
2 tablespoons warm water
1/2 cup or 120ml milk
2 tablespoons butter
1 large egg
1/4 cup or 50g sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
 3 1/8 cups or 400g bread flour

For the filling:
1/2 cup or about 40g finely grated cheese
2-3 fresh jalapeños
5 good quality bun-length beef franks

For brushing the kolaches before baking:
2 tablespoons butter, melted and cooled

Method
Sprinkle the yeast over warm water in the bowl of your stand mixer along with 1 teaspoon of the sugar and 1 tablespoon of the flour. Let prove for 5 minutes. It should start to foam up and get bubbly. If it doesn’t, start over with new yeast.

Meanwhile, warm the milk and butter until the butter just melts. Set aside.

Turn the mixer to low and add the milk and butter mixture, egg, sugar, and salt. Beat until they are mixed thoroughly.

Add the flour gradually until you have a soft but kneadable dough.

Knead for 5 minutes by machine or 8-10 minutes by hand, until the dough isn’t quite as sticky as when you started. Add additional flour as necessary, but try not to over do it.  We want a soft dough. You may not use all the flour.

Cover with plastic wrap and let rest for about an hour in a warm place, or until the dough has doubled in size.

Cut the beef franks in two equal pieces. Slice the jalapeños into thin rounds.

When the dough has doubled, punch it down and divide it into 10 equal pieces and tuck them into balls. Mine were about 70+g each.

Using your clean hands, press each ball out into a rectangle. Add some grated cheese and a few jalapeño slices to the middle of each one. Place the half frank on top then use a spatula or dough scraper to fold each long side in.

Crimp and tuck to close the ends. Place the kolache in your lined pan, seam side down. Continue until all the kolaches are filled and formed.

Cover them with cling film and pop them in the refrigerator overnight.

In the morning, remove them from the refrigerator and then set your oven to preheat to 375°F or 190°C. Fill your kitchen sink about an inch deep with warm water and set the pan in it, being careful not to get any water in the pan.

When the oven has preheated, brush the kolaches with the melted butter and bake for 25-30 minutes or until the kolaches are golden brown.

Let the kolaches cool for 15-20 minutes then pull apart gently to serve. I love mine with some yellow mustard but you can eat them plain as well, as my husband did. To each his own.

Enjoy!

Check out all the other overnight breakfast breads my fellow Bread Bakers are sharing today!

• Blueberry Cinnamon Rolls from Karen's Kitchen Stories
• Morning Buns from A Messy Kitchen 
• Overnight Apple Gingerbread Cinnamon Rolls from All That's Left Are The Crumbs
• Overnight Breakfast Rolls from Anybody Can Bake
• Overnight Sourdough Boule from A Day in the Life on the Farm
• Sausage Jalapeño Cheese Kolaches from Food Lust People Love

#BreadBakers is a group of bread loving bakers who get together once a month to bake bread with a common ingredient or theme. You can see all of our lovely bread by following our Pinterest board right here. Links are also updated after each event on the BreadBakers home page. We take turns hosting each month and choosing the theme/ingredient.

Pin these Sausage Jalapeño Cheese Kolaches!

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Sweet Buttermilk Pie #BakingBloggers

Sweet buttermilk pie is a traditional southern dessert with a creamy tart filling, topped with a generous helping of snowy white whipped cream. Add a little fruit too, if you like.

This month my fellow Baking Bloggers are sharing recipes that remind us of snow, you know, the bright white kind that everyone loves until it turns wet and mushy and grey. I almost didn’t participate because I’ve been so busy, but then I remembered this wonderful sweet buttermilk pie, just hanging around in my folders, waiting for a chance to be shared.

You could, of course, serve the pie without whipped cream but why? Everything is better with whipped cream on top!

Sweet Buttermilk Pie

This is one of my mother’s favorite desserts. It’s not just a southern tradition but a southern favorite as well. Best of all it’s easy to make. Mix all the ingredients in one bowl and pour it into your pie crust to bake. I made my own pie crust from this recipe (stop before baking blind) but if you have to use a store-bought one this time of year, no worries.

Ingredients
1 unbaked 10-inch basic piecrust shell
1/2 cup or 113g unsalted butter, softened
1 1/2 cups or 300g granulated sugar
3 large eggs
3 rounded tablespoons all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon lemon zest
1/4-1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1 1/2 cups or 355ml buttermilk

To serve:
Whipped cream
Fresh fruit like raspberries, blueberries or even sliced peaches

Method
Preheat the oven to 350°F or 180°C.

 In a large mixing bowl, combine the sugar and butter and beat until fluffy. Add the eggs in one at a time, beating well in between. Beat in flour, lemon zest and vanilla. Stir in the buttermilk with the beaters on very low.

Pour the buttermilk mixture into the unbaked pie shell. Grate on a little nutmeg or sprinkle on powdered nutmeg very lightly.

 Bake until the top is lightly browned and the center is just starting to set , about 40-45 minutes. It should be just the slightest bit jiggly. Remove from the oven and cool to room temperature. The filling with set completely as it cools.

Slice the pie into individual servings. Garnish with a small mountain of whipped cream on each piece and a few berries for a pop of color.

Enjoy!

Many thanks to this month’s host, Sue of Palatable Pastime and her group co-organizer, Wendy of A Day in the Life on the Farm. Between them they keep this group ticking along smoothly and I am grateful. Check out all the other snow-white recipes my Baking Blogger friends are sharing today:

• Billowy Gingerbread Trifles from Culinary Adventures with Camilla
• Christmas Cookie Tree from A Day in the Life on the Farm
• Eggless Nankhatai from Sneha's Recipe
• Grandma's Meringue Cookies from Our Good Life
• Kourabiedes Greek Cookies With Powdered Sugar from Recipe Pocket
• Mexican Wedding Cookies from The Schizo Chef
• Snow Ball Cupcakes from Karen's Kitchen Stories
• Snowflake Cupcakes from Palatable Pastime
• Snowy Mountain Cookies from Jolene's Recipe Journal
• Sweet Buttermilk Pie from Food Lust People Love
• White Texas Sheet Cake from Making Miracles
• Winter Wonderland Cake from Sid's Sea Palm Cooking

Baking Bloggers is a friendly group of food bloggers who vote on a shared theme and then post recipes to fit that theme one the second Monday of each month. If you are a food blogger interested in joining in, inquire at our Baking Bloggers Facebook group. We'd be honored if you would join us in our baking adventures.

Pin this sweet buttermilk pie!

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