My most requested Christmas cookie recipe

Yup I said Christmas cookie recipe and Christmas was well over a week ago I realize that. But Christmas comes every year, or at least we hope it does. So I am giving you this cookie recipe now so you can anticipate making it this upcoming Christmas season as in 11 months from now. It never hurts to be too prepared in my opinion especially when you are baking. Butter needs to be left out to become room temperature, eggs preferably for baking should be room temperature too. So when you are beginning to plan for your holiday baking, you have been fully informed of what is necessary to bake these cookies even if it is 11 months earlier. 

Some people call these Russian tea cakes or Mexican wedding cookies or even snowballs but in my household they are known as butterballs. Yup 100% butter in these cookies and because I eat so many of them during the holiday season, well I might begin to look a bit like a butterball. 

Side note I must tell you the story of these cookies and they place they serve in my family's history. After college, my parents had to date long distance for a year. My mom went to Arizona and my dad stayed behind in Indiana until he joined my mom in Arizona a year later. When the long distance was finally over, my dad baked these butterballs, put them in a cookie jar and personally delivered them to her when they were reunited. That cookie jar still sits in our kitchen some almost 40 years later and hasn't been broken three kids later. 

Ok lets bake some cookies. Gather together these ingredients:

1 cup butter (room temperature), 3 tablespoons vanilla, 1/2 cup powdered sugar, 1 1 /2 tablespoon water, 2 1/2 cup flour, 2 cups pecans, chopped.

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. In your mixing bowl, cream the butter for a few minutes. Add in the powdered sugar and the vanilla. Lastly, add in the water. Don't worry if all the ingredients don't fully incorporate. Now add in the flour followed by the chopped pecans.

Roll the dough into 1 inch size balls and place on a greased cookie sheet.

 Bake for 10-15 minutes until the bottoms are golden tan. 

While the cookies are baking, pour out some extra powdered sugar onto a plate or pie plate. You will be rolling the freshly baked cookies into the powdered sugar. 

After the cookies are baked, roll them immediately in the powdered sugar and then set aside to cool. You can re-roll them after they have cooled slightly if you prefer. Then eat, enjoy, have with a mug of eggnog or hot chocolate and enjoy the holiday season!