If you're looking for a crowd-pleasing cookie that is simple to make, look no further than polvorones, which roughly translates to "crumbly" in Spanish. Given that they're a shortbread-style cookie, this makes sense. The ratio of butter to flour and sugar in the dough gives them a high fat content and the resulting (delicious) "short" texture. Similar to a snowball cookie, polvorones are often called Mexican wedding cookies or Russian tea cakes; however, these cookies' origins aren't very clear-they don't seem to have much connection to weddings in Mexico. What is crystal clear is that they're melt-in-your-mouth delicious and worthy of any holiday cookie spread.
To make the cookies, you'll start by toasting walnuts until super-fragrant, then blitzing them into flour. This lends a toasted nuttiness to every bite. Pecans and almonds are often used for these cookies too and can be swapped in for the walnuts if you like.
You can make the dough and portion out the cookies up to 2 days in advance. Let the dough come to room temperature for 20 minutes before baking.
It doesn't matter when you roll the cookies-whether it's shortly after they come out of the oven or after they cool. What is important is that you really coat the cookies to give it that classic snowball look. The sugar will then soak in, creating a dappled white coating that looks so pretty on a dessert table.
Yields: 30-32
Prep Time: 10 mins
Total Time: 2 hours 15 mins
(140 g.) walnuts
kosher salt
(200 g.) powdered sugar, divided
(2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
pure vanilla extract
(240 g.) all-purpose flour
© PHOTO: LUCY SCHAEFFER PHOTOGRAPHY; FOOD STYLING: BARRETT WASHBURNEPolvorones