Ellie at Kitchen Wench called a one-time blogging event. I hope you enjoy my trip down memory lane:

One of my earliest baking memories was at my favorite home in Tennessee: Aunt Crickett’s and Uncle Jim’s home in the mountains. It is a beautiful old home that is a bit impractical. The house is all on one level with just the kitchen and dining area on a lower level on its own. But it is built into the side of a mountain and I guess that’s how it needed to be built.Well, my Aunt Crickett always made Mexican Wedding Cookies, although none of the family is from Hispanic decent. I loved her Mexican Wedding Cookies. She was the only person I knew who made them, and would be the only person in my life who made them until I got the cooking bug.

One very cold winter vacation my mother, my sister and I were visiting Aunt Crickett and Uncle Jim. I had always told my mother how much I loved my Aunt’s cookies. As luck would have it, she was planning on making a batch during our visit and thought it would be fun to teach me how she made these tasty cookies. We used our hands instead of a mixer, but they turn out good either way. Just make sure you make them with (or for) someone you love. Thanks Aunt Crickett!

Ingredients:

• 2/3 cup pecans
• 1 cup butter
• 1/2 cup confectioner’s sugar for cookie and 1/4 cup for coating.
• 1 tsp. vanilla extract
• 1 tsp. almond extract
• 2 cups all purpose flour
• 1/2 tsp. salt

The Steps:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
2. Spread pecans on a cookie sheet and toast in over for 5 minutes.
3. Allow pecans to cool, then combine with 2 tbps. flour in a food processor. Blend until pecans are almost the same consistency as the flour, but still chunky.
4. In another bowl, cream sugar and butter.
5. Add the almond and vanilla extract and continue to blend.
6. Add remaining flour and salt and continue to blend.
7. Add the crushed pecans and continue to blend.
8. Roll small pieces of the dough into balls about the size of a large marble and place on a cookie sheet.
9. Bake in 350 degree F oven for about 12 - 15 minutes until they just start to turn a golden color.
10. Remove from baking sheet and cool on wire rack.
11. Once cooled, roll in remaining sugar.

This entry was posted on Friday, February 23rd, 2007 at 11:52 pm and is filed under Cookies. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.