Mexican Wedding Cake Cookies Flax “Melt in Your Mouth” Flax Shortbread Cookies

Mexican Wedding Cake Cookies with Flax are delectable, decadent and rich tasting!

These are a version of Shortbread cookies with many other names: Pecan Sandies, Russian Tea Cake Cookies, Italian Butter Nut, Southern Pecan Butterball, Snowdrop cookies, Viennese Sugar Ball and Snowball cookies, etc. :) So, we will call these cookies various names throughout...

They are very similar to Melting Moments cookies -the only difference is that Mexican Wedding Cake Cookies contain ground or chopped nuts.

These snowdrop cookies are popular cookies for Christmas Holidays, weddings, christenings and many other special occasions. These Russian Tea Cake Cookies are meant to be very rich tasting and extravagant.

The secret to great tasting Mexican Wedding Cake Cookies with Flax is using high quality butter, pure vanilla and nuts in order to produce the best tasting Pecan Sandies cookies.

Mexican Wedding Cake Cookies Recipe with flax:

*Cream until butter and sugar mixture changes to a lighter color -the mixture becomes light and fluffy and this helps give the Snowdrop cookies the "melt-in-your-mouth" taste.

You can use a stand-alone mixer, hand mixer, or just beating it by hand. It won't have the same fluffiness if it is beaten by hand, but they will still be delicious! Blend for about 2 minutes -the longer you blend it, the lighter and fluffier the mixture will be.

*One of the most important ingredients in pecan sandies recipe is the butter -using high quality, fresh butter or vegan butter is important to the taste. If you substitute margarine, Crisco, etc -the taste can be very different and it won't have the same melting in your mouth texture!

Add to creamed mixture:
2 teaspoons water
2 teaspoons vanilla

*The other most important ingredient is vanilla: We recommend using pure vanilla. Imitation vanilla is made with synthetic vanilla -from glycoside found in coal extracts or sapwood of some conifers and can leave a bitter aftertaste.

Add in:
1 3/4 cup flour
1/2 cup Flakes o' Gold or Ground Premium Gold Flaxseed
1/2 tsp cinnamon or nutmeg (optional -adds a little more flavor)

Mix in to the mixture:
1 cup chopped nuts (optional)
-Any kind of nuts, but usually pecans or walnuts, but any nut will taste delicious!

*Depending on the type of nut you use, you can finely chop them in different ways:
-Soft nuts like walnuts and pecans can simply be chopped with a knife or put in a ziploc bag and use a rolling pin to crush them.
-Medium to Harder nuts like hazelnuts or almonds may need to be blended or ground with a coffee grinder -just grind them until they are finely ground, not a paste.

For a fun and unique variation of Russian Tea Cake Cookies, Mix in:
1 chocolate bar broken into small pieces (optional)
-like a dark chocolate and orange bar or a dark chocolate and chili pepper bar into small pieces

Shape Cookies:

Shape the Snowdrop cookies into balls or flatten them slightly or form them into your preferred shape.

If you are shaping them into special shapes or using special shaping tins, then you should chill them for 15-30 minutes before baking so that the designs don't lose their shape.

Each Pecan Sandies cookie can be topped with a piece of nut, like a pecan on top. (optional)

Cook at 325* for 15-20 mins or until lightly browned on bottom edges.
Snowdrop cookies will be very white, do not overbake
Remove from oven and from pan.

Roll Cookies in Powdered Sugar:

Allow the Russian Tea Cake Cookies to cool for about 3-5 minutes

-or you can immediately roll them in a large bowel or plate of 1/2 cup powdered sugar (add more if needed) -coating them well.

(When the Pecan Sandies cookies are hot, the powdered sugar sticks a lot better and you get a better, more visible layer).
If you want a lighter layer, than allow flax shortbread cookies to cool a little and then sprinkle powdered sugar on them -or quickly roll them in powdered sugar.

Makes about 3 dozen flax shortbread cookies.

Other Variations/Options of Russian Tea Cake Cookies:

Dip the cookies in Chocolate:

Melt 6 oz of chocolate chip pieces in the microwave or top of a double boiler.

Add 1 tsp vegetable oil and stir well.

Holding a cooled cookie, dip half in the melted chocolate and set on a piece of waxed paper to dry.

Spice up the chocolate and the Mexican Wedding Cake Cookies and add 1/16 tsp (about a pinch) of cayenne to the melted chocolate.

Secrets and Tips to Great Tasting Mexican Wedding Cakes:

*Use the highest quality butter that you can afford and relevant to the occasion.

Butter in the US is graded according to flavor, color, texture, etc and given a letter code or numerical number listed on the packaging of butter. In the US, butter's highest grade is AA (93 score), then A (92 score), followed by B (90 score).

*Use pure vanilla extract.

*Use quality nuts.

About Shortbread Cookies

Shortbread is a kind of biscuit or cookie that is usually made with flour, butter and sugar. Over time, ingredients have been changed and added with many variations, but they maintain the delicious, rich taste.

The original shortbread is very dense and crumbly -which is how they became known as Sandies. Flax shortbread cookies store well in the freezer and are perfect for holidays, weddings and many special occasions.

So many countries have fairly similar shortbread type recipes and it is believed that all the recipes may have originated from medieval Middle Eastern nut cakes. It was in the 1950's that the name: Mexican wedding cake cookie first appeared in print in cookbooks in the US.

Mexican wedding cake cookies are meant to be delectable, extravagant and rich tasting and why they are often served for special occasions. When Russian Tea Cake Cookies are rolled in powdered sugar, they can be very messy, so as an alternative they don't need to be rolled in powdered sugar for black tie events.

Enjoy these flax shortbread cookies all year long!