Best Mexican Wedding Cookies

Mexican wedding cookies go by many names depending on whose kitchen made them. Polvorones, Russian tea cakes, snowballs, and Italian wedding cookies are all close cousins of the same shortbread tradition. This Mexican version uses powdered sugar in the dough (not granulated) and finely chopped pecans, then gets a cinnamon-spiked roll in extra powdered sugar after baking. The cinnamon is what marks it as the Mexican take.

The melt-on-contact texture is the whole point. Powdered sugar dissolves into the butter faster than granulated and contains a small amount of cornstarch, which gives shortbread its signature crumble. Finely chopped pecans add structure without crunch. The dough should be barely held together, and the cookies are done when they’re set but pale. Browning ruins the texture and turns the cookies hard around the edges.

Pro Tips

• Toast the pecans in a dry skillet for 5 minutes before chopping for deeper, nuttier flavor. Skipping this step gives you flat-tasting cookies.
• Pull from the oven before they brown. The recipe is right to insist on this. Even a hint of color means overbaked, and these cookies should look almost raw.
• Roll in the cinnamon sugar while still warm (but cool enough to handle). Warm cookies grab the sugar coating better than cold ones.
• Roll a second time after fully cooling for a thicker, snowier coating that doesn’t disappear into the cookie.

Variations

• Swap pecans for finely chopped walnuts or almonds for a different nut profile.
• Add a teaspoon of grated orange zest to the dough for a brighter, citrus-leaning cookie.
• Skip the cinnamon for a plainer powdered sugar roll, matching the Spanish polvoron tradition more closely.