Monkey Bee Blog

(AKA Mexican Wedding Cakes)

Ingredients:

Same as “My Mother’s Cookies“, but 2 cups finely chopped pecans

Powdered sugar for rolling cooled cookies, about 1 cup or so

Heat oven to 375 degrees. Cream together the softened butter, sugar, and vanilla until mixture is light and fluffy. Mix in salt and flour until just blended. Fold in the chopped pecans. Roll dough into about 50 1” balls using a rounded teaspoon of dough for each ball. Place on an un-greased cookie sheet 1” apart. Bake for 15 minutes. Remove cookie sheet from oven, place on a cooling rack. When cookies have cooled for about 10 minutes, roll in powdered sugar.

** I think the real key to these two cookies is how I chop the pecans. You can chop them in a food processor or blender, but for me that just means I come out with a lot of pecan dust and too many too-large pieces. I chop them by hand, one pecan at a time. Tedious, yes; but wonderful cookies. I usually get my pecans at Costco.

This recipe was given to me by my Aunt Millie. She got this recipe from “Nana” King, the mother of her three best girlfriends. Millie has known Nana King for well over 60 years. Today Nana King is 97 (Summer 2006) and lives here in Sacramento. This recipe was Nana King’s mothers’ recipe, and that is as far back as I can trace it.

Ingredients:

1 cup unsalted butter, softened

¼ cup sugar

1 tsp pure vanilla extract

¼ tsp salt

2 cups all purpose flour (or 2 ¼ cups cake or pastry flour)

1 cup finely chopped pecans**

Icing:

Stir together:

2 cups confectioners’ sugar

1 tsp pure almond extract

1 – 2 tbsp water, enough to make icing the right consistency

Food coloring, optional

Heat oven to 300 degrees. Cream together the softened butter, sugar, and vanilla until mixture is light and fluffy. Mix in salt and flour until just blended. Fold in the chopped pecans. Drop dough by rounded teaspoon onto un-greased cookie sheets, about 1” apart and using your thumb, press an indentation into the center of each cookie. Bake for 20-30 minutes. Remove from cookie sheet and cool on a rack. When the cookies are cool, spoon the prepared icing into the indentation and let it set up, several hours. Makes about 3 to 3 ½ dozen cookies.

Heat oven to 300 degrees. Cream together the softened butter, sugar, and vanilla until mixture is light and fluffy. Mix in salt and flour until just blended. Fold in the chopped pecans. Drop dough by rounded teaspoon onto un-greased cookie sheets, about 1” apart and using your thumb, press an indentation into the center of each cookie. Bake for 20-30 minutes. Remove from cookie sheet and cool on a rack. When the cookies are cool, spoon the prepared icing into the indentation and let it set up, several hours. Makes about 3 to 3 ½ dozen cookies.

Now we have a place to put all those recipies we can never find. Please feel free to add to this list so we can all enjoy!