Your family may refer to these cookies as Sand Tarts, Snowballs, Russian Tea Cakes, or Mexican Wedding Cookies. It is safe to say that just about every nationality has their own version of this cookie. Who can blame them? These delicious nutty cookies are simple to make!
The nutty flavor comes from toasting the pecans. Toasting the pecans first forces the pecans to release their oils and take on a richer and nuttier flavor. The cookie dough itself is not very sweet because the cookie balls are coated twice in powdered sugar. The first coating happens two minutes after the cookies come out of the oven. The warm exterior of the cookie causes the powdered sugar to stick, and as they cool, the powdered sugar adhering to the surface becomes very sticky. It is this sticky surface that makes the second coating of powdered sugar cling to the cookie and form a dry and powdery sweet casing for the rich and nutty cookie.
Course: Dessert
Cuisine: American
Level: Easy
Prep: 15 min
Cook: 10 to 12 min
Chilling: 60 min
Total: 1 hr 27 min
Servings: 4 dozen
Special equipment
• Mixing bowls
• A simple food chopper or food processor
• A hand mixer or stand mixer with a paddle attachment
• 3 large baking sheets
• Parchment paper or 2 silicon baking mats
• Wire racks
Ingredients
For the cookie dough
• 1 cup chopped pecans
• 1 cup unsalted butter, softened at room temperature
• 1/2 cup unsifted powdered sugar
• 2 1/4 cups sifted all-purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
To roll the cookies
• 1 cup powdered sugar, sifted
Directions
Norwegian Tea Cakes Dough
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
- Bake chopped pecans in a single layer in a large baking sheet 6 minutes or until toasted and fragrant, stirring halfway through. Cool completely, about 20 minutes.
- Place the toasted pecans in the bowl of a food processor, and process until finely ground or the texture of coarse cornmeal, 15 to 30 seconds. Transfer to a bowl and set aside.
- In a large bowl, sift together the flour and salt. set aside.
- In the bowl of the electric mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, beat together the butter until light and fluffy, 2 to 3 minutes.
- Add sugar and beat until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Scrape down sides of the bowl and add the vanilla extract; beat to combine.
- Reduce the speed to low; gradually add the flour mixture to the creamed mixture and mix on low until incorporated, scraping down the sides of the bowl as needed. Mix in the toasted ground pecans.
- Use your hands to press the dough into a solid mass. Wrap with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 1 hour.
Making Norwegian Tea Cakes
- Preheat oven to 350°F.
- Line two large baking sheets with parchment paper or silicon baking mats. Set aside.
- Remove dough from refrigerator.
- Scoop and shape dough into 1-inch balls, by rolling about 2 teaspoons of dough between the palm of your hands. (Note: The dough will be crumbly, so you will be rolling dough into spheres between the palms of your hands.)
- Place cookies 1 inch apart on lined baking sheets.
- Bake until edges are lightly browned, about 10 to 12 minutes. (Note: Do not allow these cookies to get brown. it is better to undercook them than to overcook them. Cookies look very pale when done and will immediately fall apart if handled straight out of the oven, but firm up nicely when cooled.)
- Allow cookies to cool on baking sheet until cooled enough to handle but still quite warm, about 2 minutes.
- When cookies are cooled enough to handle, place the sifted powdered sugar into a shallow dish and roll each warm cookie gently in the powdered sugar until completely coated. Transfer the sugar-cover cookies to a wire rack to cool completely, about 10 minutes.
- Once completely cooled, roll cookies again in powdered sugar until completely coated.
- Once the cookies are completely cooled, they can be stored in an airtight container for up to a week, or place in a sealed plastic container, using parchment paper to separate the layers and freeze for up to 2 months. To defrost, simply remove cookies from the freezer and thaw at room temperature. Re-roll in powdered sugar before serving, if necessary.