Pistachio Mexican Wedding Cakes Recipe
By
Kate Ramos
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Mexican wedding cakes are buttery little cookies with a sordid past: During an era fraught with tension between the United States and the Soviet Union, serving once-popular Russian tea cakes became a faux pas when entertaining. Seemingly out of nowhere Mexican wedding cakes began appearing in their place, an almost identical cookie. Try serving them at your next cocktail party.
Game plan: Mincing the pistachios by hand can be an arduous task. An easier way to get small, even pieces is to pulse the nuts in a food processor; just be careful not to pulse them into a paste.
This recipe was featured as part of our Spicy Holiday Cocktail Party.
INGREDIENTS
- 2 sticks (8 ounces) unsalted butter, at room temperature
- 2 cups powdered sugar
- 1 cup shelled, unsalted roasted pistachios, minced
- 2 teaspoons freshly grated orange zest
- 1/2 teaspoon fine salt
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1/2 teaspoon almond extract
- 2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
INSTRUCTIONS
- Heat the oven to 350°F and line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper; set aside.
- Combine butter and 1/2 cup of the powdered sugar in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Beat on medium high until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add pistachios, orange zest, salt, vanilla extract, and almond extract and continue mixing until ingredients are well incorporated. Add flour and mix just until incorporated, about 30 seconds (do not overmix).
- Shape dough into tablespoon-size balls. Place 1 inch apart on the prepared baking sheets. Bake until bottoms begin to brown, about 15 minutes. Remove from the oven and let cool slightly on the baking sheets, about 10 minutes.
- Pour remaining 1 1/2 cups powdered sugar into a medium bowl. Working with 5 or 6 at a time, place warm cookies in the powdered sugar, turning gently to thickly coat (you should see very little of the cookie underneath). Let cool and recoat in powdered sugar if a thicker coat is desired. Repeat with remaining cookies.
@TRex -- they are a cookie, almost a shortbread. They should stay in the little ball shape while cooking. I've never tried these with pistachios, only pecans (and macadamia nuts -- don't use macadamia nuts).
Can someone who made them tell me if this is right. I just made it and the dough when mixed was pretty crumbly and but still formed into balls in my fist. And then when I baked it, the little balls came out more like a cookie, not a cakey at all. Did I mess up?
I make these with no zest and finely ground almonds and I freeze them too with the icing sugar on adapted the recipe from James Barber's cookbook "Cooking for two" He uses walnuts.
Mexican Wedding Cookies are A-M-A-ZING! These are by far my favorite cookies in the world. My mom would make them every year around Christmas growing up, only she would put pecans in them instead of pistachios!
Bret
www.gourmetorchards.com
Great texture, complex flavors, pistachio and orange delicious combination and quite different from version made with walnuts. Cooled completely before rolling in powdered sugar.
You may freeze these but powder them after they are defrosted.
Shortsord, Mexican Wedding Cookies are supposed to be dry and "sandy", hence the name some people use when they make them disk-shaped "Pecan Sandies". They should never be moist.
They aren't supposed to be unpleasantly, dry, though. Make sure you've used enough butter if you find them unpleasant.
Oh man, Mexican Wedding Cakes have always been my favorite. My mom made tham with walnuts, but pistachios sound even better- like heaven on earth!
I tried making these tonight, but they came out incredibly dry. Are they supposed to be this way? Every mexican wedding cake I've had before has been somewhat moist inside. The ingredient list seems somewhat devoid of wet ingredients besides the extracts as well. Am I out of the loop or did I just mess up? And can I fix them, I still have half the batter left.
I made a version of these cookies for Christmas this year but added dried cherries. They were a huge hit and have been added to my permanent cookie roster.
but of course, those are made with pecans :)
Delish! We call them pecan sandies.
Russian or Mexican, they are both very old. I don't know which came first, but who cares? These are very traditional Mexican, this particular recipe is the Mexican Version of a worldwide cookie. Yummmmm
Question about cooking with pistachios: what about the skins? Obviously you don't eat shells, but what about the dark coat immediately surrounding the nut? I made some pistachio ice cream once and those skins definitely influenced the flavor: made it darker, earthier than we liked. Should the pistachios be skinned for that recipe, and this recipe, too?
Pass me the tostones,
these cookies are as old as time and some people use orange zest and some do not. It gives it a distinct extra to it, not bad. Almonds and walnuts are always extra favorites although almonds carry weight over from Spanish cooking.
We make ours with hazelnuts. I had some from a Middle Eastern bakery that were identical, but made from walnuts. Here in Spain there are similar sweets made from almonds. And of course pecans in the Americas. Lots of nutty possibilities...
Not saying these couldn't be delicious, but I'm mildly bothered by this choice to change the nuts and seasonings and yet keep the "Mexican" description. I mean, with this additional twist, these are about as Mexican and they are Russian.
I'd taste one of these, but I think the bare bones simplicity of the original/s are what make them sing; why fuss it up?
Grandma Tillie's crescent cookies! She used walnuts and all of us grandchildren used to pig out on them. She was from Russia not Mexico. ;)
These sound so good - I really want to try them.
yes, I made about 200 for a friend's wedding and froze them. They freeze perfectly. My recipe uses pecans, no zest, vanilla flav. My friends are insane for them.
Any idea if these can be made in advance and frozen?
I make the same but russian tea cakes with crushed walnuts butter confectioners and no zest from Betty Crocker cookbook. They are the favorite one I make out of about twenty for xmas!!!