Mexican Polvorones (Mexican Wedding Cookies)
Crumbly pecan snowballs: butter, shortening, ground pecans and powdered sugar pulsed into a short dough, rolled into balls, baked golden and buried in more powdered sugar.
This one cookie goes by many names. Wikipedia's Russian tea cake article lists Russian tea cake, Mexican wedding cake or cookie, snowball and butterball, and traces the family to qurabiya, a medieval Arab shortbread with ground almonds; versions spread into Europe as Greek kourabiedes and the Spanish polvorón, and Spanish colonizers brought the polvorón to Mexico in the 16th century, where pecans often replaced almonds. The Spanish polvorón, from polvo, "dust," is mostly made in Andalusia, where mantecados take their name from manteca, lard. Greek kourabiedes are usually made with almonds, sometimes flavored with brandy, and in some regions each Christmas cookie gets a whole clove. Mexico News Daily says the first known mention of the cookie as "Mexican" in the US was a 1937 issue of American Cookery, and the "Mexican wedding cookie" name took over US cookbooks in the 1950s (December 2, 2024:). Why Americans also call it Russian is unknown (Wikipedia).
📖 Where is it from?: Mexican Wedding Cookies vs Russian Tea Cakes vs Snowballs →
Why it works the kitchen science
Powdered sugar in the dough
It dissolves without creaming, so the cookies bake up fine and sandy instead of crisp and grainy, the "dust" the name promises.
Butter plus shortening
Butter brings flavor while shortening, which does not melt as fast, keeps the balls round and extra crumbly.
Step by step
- Step 1
Heat the oven to 350°F and butter a large baking sheet.
- Step 2
Pulse the pecans in a food processor until finely chopped. Add the confectioners' sugar, flour and salt and pulse again, scraping down the sides.
- Step 3
Add the butter and shortening and pulse a couple of times, then add the egg and pulse just until the dough starts to come together.
- Step 4
Roll the dough into 1 to 1 1/2-inch balls and set them 1 inch apart on the sheet. Pat each one lightly on top.
- Step 5
Bake about 15 minutes, until golden brown on the bottom and lightly golden on top. Bake in two batches if needed.
- Step 6
While they are warm, dust them very generously with confectioners' sugar; dust again once cool.
Mexican Polvorones (Mexican Wedding Cookies)
Serves 15 (2 cookies each) · about 30 cookies · 45 min total
Dough
- 1/2 cup (57 g) pecans, ground or very finely chopped
- 3/4 cup (85 g) confectioners' sugar
- 2 cups (240 g) all-purpose flour
- 1/8 tsp kosher or sea salt
- 1/2 cup (1 stick, 113 g) cold unsalted butter, in chunks
- 1/2 cup (92 g) vegetable shortening, in chunks (or another stick of butter)
- 1 large egg
To finish
- About 1 cup confectioners' sugar, for dusting
Method
- Heat the oven to 350°F and butter a large baking sheet.
- Pulse the pecans in a food processor until finely chopped. Add the confectioners' sugar, flour and salt and pulse again, scraping down the sides.
- Add the butter and shortening and pulse a couple of times, then add the egg and pulse just until the dough starts to come together.
- Roll the dough into 1 to 1 1/2-inch balls and set them 1 inch apart on the sheet. Pat each one lightly on top.
- Bake about 15 minutes, until golden brown on the bottom and lightly golden on top. Bake in two batches if needed.
- While they are warm, dust them very generously with confectioners' sugar; dust again once cool.
Adapted from Pati Jinich, "Mexican Wedding Cookies (Polvorones)" (patijinich.com, March 11, 2016), as written for about 30. Her recipe includes an egg, which many versions skip; we keep it. Gram weights are ours, from King Arthur's chart. Greek kourabiedes and Russian tea cakes are told as history only; we did not open a Greek or Russian authority recipe. patijinich.com. Ingredient list follows the source; the method is in our own words.
Tips
- Toast the pecans first for deeper flavor, but cool them completely before they meet the butter.
- Two coats of sugar: the first melts slightly into the warm cookies and helps the second stick.
- For a kourabiedes-style twist, use toasted almonds and push a whole clove into the top of each ball before baking (Wikipedia's note on Greek Christmas kourabiedes).
The rules people argue about
What the sources agree on, what they don't, and what is just a good story.
- They were renamed "Mexican wedding cookies" during the Cold War to drop "Russian." Disputed: widely repeated, but Mexico News Daily and The Knot point to a 1937 American Cookery mention of "Mexican wedding cakes," before the Cold War.
- Mexican wedding cookies and Russian tea cakes are the same cookie. Disputed: Wikipedia lists them as names for one cookie; Mexico News Daily says the Mexican version has more flour and is sandier, while tea cakes are denser with finely ground walnuts.
- They are served at Mexican weddings. Documented as Mexico News Daily's account (weddings and Christmas).
- They come from medieval Arab cooking. Documented as the culinary historians Wikipedia cites (Nasrallah 2007; Davidson 2014).
- Lard is the authentic fat. Disputed: Spanish mantecados are named for lard (Wikipedia), while Pati Jinich uses butter and shortening and many Latin American versions use butter.
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