Rose & Steve's Recipes

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===== Chile-Spiked Mexican Wedding Cakes =====

From The Splendid Table's® How to Eat Weekends by Lynne Rossetto Kasper and Sally Swift (Clarkson Potter, 2011). Copyright © 2011 by American Public Media. Photography copyright © 2011 by Ellen Silverman. All rights reserved.

Who doesn't love those little balls of buttery dough showered with powdered sugar that gets all over your shirt and shoes? Here's our take on a holiday season essential.

Makes 24 to 30 cookies

The dough can be made 2 to 3 days ahead and refrigerated. Finished cookies keep 1 week in a cool place, or frozen for up to 6 months.

This is an amped-up version of Mexican Wedding Cake cookies by Sally's mother, Ricki. What the daughter of Italian mining immigrants in Ely, Minnesota was doing with a Mexican cookie in her arsenal remains a mystery. The story she told was that these were actually classic Russian sweets, and "when things started going south with the Soviets," they started calling them Mexican Wedding Cakes. Wacky? Well, so was she.

Wine: Arguments have broken out at the table as to whether light and effervescent Moscato d'Asti or a soft and rich late-harvest wine offers a better pairing. These are very different, but both wonderfully flattering with the cookies, which should assure you that any sweet wine will work well. Here's to further study.

    * 1 cup pecan pieces, lightly toasted
    * 1 cup unsalted butter, softened
    * 1/2 cup sugar
    * 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
    * 2 cups all-purpose flour
    * 1/2 teaspoon salt
    * 1/2 teaspoon cayenne
    * 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
    * 1/2 cup confectioners' sugar

1. In a food processor, pulse the pecans until coarsely ground. Add the butter and pulse until combined. Mix in the sugar and vanilla. Add the flour, salt, cayenne, and cinnamon and pulse just to combine.

2. Gather the dough into a ball and wrap in plastic. Refrigerate until firm, at least 2 hours and preferably overnight.

3. Preheat the oven to 350°F. Line two baking sheets with parchment.

4. When ready to bake, let the dough warm to room temperature so that it is pliable but still cold. Using about 1 tablespoon dough per cookie, roll the dough into balls. Place them on the baking sheet about 1 inch apart and flatten slightly with the palm of your hand or the bottom of a glass to keep them from rolling.

5. Bake until slightly browned on the bottom, about 12 minutes. Let them cool completely. Sift the confectioners' sugar over the cooled cookies and dust with additional spices if desired.