Simple Pecan Butterball Cookies

There are more names for these popular cookies than in ingredients in the recipe: butterball cookies with pecans, Russian butterball cookies, Russian tea cakes, Italian wedding cookies, Mexican wedding cookies, snowballs, and snowballs. 

The preparation of these delicious cookies, made with only five ingredients, couldn't be simpler. What’s more, the cookie dough does not need to be chilled before baking, which makes these cookies the perfect candidates for impromptu cookie baking, for Christmas and any other time.

After they come out of the oven, the cookies are rolled in confectioners' sugar, which gives them their typical powdery white coating.

Pecans give these delicious little butter cookies extra texture. Whichever countries these cookies are attributed to, the pecans suggest that the cookies are an American invention (other variations of the cookies are made with walnuts or almonds). Pecan trees are the only nut trees native to North America. Most of the world’s pecans are grown in the United States, namely in Georgia, New Mexico, and Texas. That suggests that butterball cookies came from the American South.

Butterball cookies can be stored in airtight containers for a few days, but they really taste best the same day or the next. In most households, they vanish quickly and storage is usually not the problem.

Instead of letting the cookies go stale, it’s much better to refrigerate or freeze the cookie dough in an airtight container and only bake as many cookies are you will eat that day. Let refrigerated dough come to room temperature until it is soft enough to shape.

Cookie dough with high butter content like the butterball cookies also freezes well. Shape the dough into logs, wrap them tightly in waxed paper, put in freezer bags, and seal. The dough will keep in the freezer for up to three months. When you are ready to bake, let the dough thaw in the refrigerator for a few hours until it is soft enough to pinch off dough and shape the cookies into balls.