Zulka Pure Cane Sugar Review (Giveaway CLOSED)

I was contacted by Zulka a few weeks ago and they wanted me to try out their sugar. As I was doing my recipe testing for the cookbook, I was going through sugar like it was going out of style. It could not have been a better time to sample their sugar because I was testing recipes that I have made time and time again, which meant if something tasted different I would know. 

Before I tell you my thoughts on Zulka, let me provide you with a few facts about their product. First off, Zulka is real sugar. It is not an artificial sweetener and it is not a low calorie substitute for sugar- IT IS SUGAR. Zulka Morena Pure Cane Sugar is a Non-GMO, (genetically modified organism) minimally processed sugar made from freshly harvested sugar cane. The term Non-GMO means that the sugar canes have not been genetically altered and are more natural. Zulka also does NOT undergo the conventional refining process of most granulated sugars and maintains the the appearance and flavor of raw sugar cane. You can learn more about the Non-GMO project HERE.

When I first heard about Zulka sugar, I was think it would be more like Turbinado sugar than white granulated sugar, but it's not. It's somewhere in the middle, though closer to white granulated sugar. I did a side-by-side comparison of Imperial Granulated Sugar, Zulka Morena Sugar and Sugar In The Raw Turbinado Sugar. The granulated sugar was pure white and uniformly fine in texture and the Zulka had more of a natural hue to it and was a bit coarser in texture. The turbinado sugar was even more coarse and similar in size to sanding sugar and was unmistakably golden in color. Cup-for-cup, Zulka can be used in place of granulated sugar and because it's less processed, more of the natural sugar cane flavor is still there. 

I used it in my favorite cake recipe for Chocolate Zucchini Bundt Cake and could not tell a difference in flavor, though it was slightly coarser in granule size. I was sent a 4 pound bag to try out and used in several recipes as well as in our coffee. I would buy it again but I had issues with the packaging. Since it comes in a plastic bag, I would have preferred a zip top closure to seal the bag. If you typically store your sugar in a separate container it's not that big of an issue, I just would have like to seal it up and store it rather than having to find something to secure that bag shut. If you're looking for a more natural product to stock your pantry with, consider giving Zulka a try. 

If you're interested in trying out Zulka Morena Pure Cane Sugar for yourself, Zulka is offering Lick The Bowl Good readers two chances to win a 4 pound bag of your own. All you have to do is answer the two following questions. 

1). Tell me why you're interested in trying out Zulka sugar  and 

2). Visit Zulka.com and tell me what recipe you would like to make with it. 

I will select two winners at random and announce the winners on May 13th. Please be sure to leave your email address so I can contact you if you win. 

Thank you Zulka for the sugar!

The Great Cookie Thief

I spent the weekend stocking my freezer with Aunt Mary's Sugar Cookies and these Eggnog Snickerdoodles. In the process, I discovered my son is a great climber and a cookie thief!  Since I was working at the kitchen island, I set the wire rack on the breakfast table full of cooling cookies. Before I knew it, that monkey of mine had climbed up onto the chair and was on the table taking bites out of cookies. I think over the course of an hour, he had stolen half a dozen cookies, bit onto them and fed them to our dog, Autumn. What a stinker!

The Great Cookie Thief!

My friend Maranda, shared this recipe with me a few weeks ago for Eggnog Snickerdoodles. This is very much like regular snickerdoodles (a cinnamon-sugar coated sugar cookie) but it uses nutmeg instead of cinnamon, and rum instead of vanilla. Um, yes please! I used my small cookie scoop to portion out the dough and baked them for 10 minutes (per the directions) but I think they over baked slightly, because while all my cookies were nice and blond in color they all wound up crunchy and not at all chewy, like a typical snickerdoodle. Nonetheless, they were tasty, and my family prefers crisp cookies anyway. If you wan them chewy, bake for 8-9 minutes or use a larger cookie scoop and just adjust the baking time accordingly. 

I have another eggnog flavored recipe coming soon. Have a good week, everyone!

Eggnog Snickerdoodles

adapted from Taste of Home via Jolts and Jollies

Printer Friendly Version 

• 1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened
• 1/2 sup shortening
• 2 cups sugar, divided
• 2 eggs
• 1/2 teaspoon rum extract
• 1/2 teaspoon white rum, optional
• 2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons cream of tartar
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 3 1/4 teaspoons ground nutmeg, divided

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. 

In a shallow bowl, combine 1/2 cup sugar and 3 teaspoons of nutmeg. Stir to combine and set aside. 

In a medium bowl, combine the flour, cream of tartar, baking soda, 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg and salt. Set aside. 

In a large bowl, cream the butter, shortening, and 1 1/2 cups sugar until light and fluffy, 

Beat in the eggs, the extract and the rum, if using. Gradually add the flour mixture and mix well. 

Roll dough into 1-inch balls. (I used a small cookie scoop to portion out the dough). Roll dough balls into sugar mixture, coating well. 

Place on ungreased cookie sheets, placing them 2-inches apart. 

Bake for 8-10 minutes or until lightly browned. Remove to wire racks to cool. 

Makes 5 dozen 2-inch cookies. 

He may be a cookie thief, but he also likes to share with his uncle Aaron.  He's such a sweet boy. 

No More Holding Out

I have a confession to make. I made this delicious cake back in December and I've been keeping it from you. Forgive me for withholding this sugary goodness. My friend, Ingrid from 3B's blog, made this umpteen years ago and I had been waiting for the perfect occasion to make it. I contemplated halving the recipe and making it in a smaller Bundt pan just so I could try it, but I held out, baked it in the biggest Bundt pan I had and shared it with my family. 

This recipe comes from the brilliant mind of Julia from Dozen Flours. It's a recipe I've seen all over the internet but it was Ingrid's love of snickerdoodles that convinced me to make it. This cake is downright delicious. What makes it similar to a snickerdoodle cookie? Well the pan is buttered then, coated in cinnamon sugar. When you turn the cake out of the pan, you're left with a thick sweet and spicy crunchy crust. There's also a ripple of cinnamon sugar that runs throughout the center on the cake. In my opinion the cake doesn't need the extra sweetness  because the cake was so moist, tender and flavorful all on it's own. 

Aaron showing off the beauty of a cinnamon sugared pan :-)

I'm not sure why I didn't take many pictures of the inside of the cake. Maybe because I was enamored with the sparkly exterior and just plain forgot about it. I don't know how else to convince you of how good this cake was. If you have a cinnamon sugar lover in the family, this cake is sure to please. I think the only thing that I would do differently next time is to use the streusel filling from this cinnamon swirl buttermilk cake. instead of the one below. Yes, that would make it near perfect. Enjoy with a glass of icy milk or creamy coffee for the full effect. 

Snickerdoodle Bundt Cake from Dozen Flours via 3B's 

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• 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 1 cup white sugar

• 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon Kosher salt
• 1 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
• 1 cup white sugar
• 1 cup light brown sugar
• 3 eggs, at room temperature
• 2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 cup full-fat sour cream, at room temperature

In a small bowl, combine 1 cup of sugar and 2 teaspoons of cinnamon. Mix together really well and set aside. 

Preheat oven to 325F. Generously spray a 9 inch Bundt pan with a nonstick baking spray with flour, being careful to cover all the nooks and crannies, as well as the center tube.  If you don't want to use baking spray with flour, you can just grease the pan with shortening. Gently dust the entire inside of the pan with the sugar and cinnamon mixture. You should only need about 1/4 to 1/2 cup of sugar, but you want to try and evenly coat the inside surface of the pan, including the tube. Save the remaining sugar and cinnamon mixture and set everything aside. 

Sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Set aside.

Beat just the butter on medium speed for one full minute. Add the white sugar and mix for 3 minutes, until light and fluffy. Scrape down the bowl and blade and add the brown sugar.

Mix for 2 minutes until the mixture looks light brown and uniform in color. Add the eggs one at a time, beating each for 1 full minute. Stir in the vanilla. Add the flour mixture alternately with the sour cream; beat well. 

Spread half of the batter into the prepared pan. Sprinkle with 1/4 to 1/3 of a cup of the cinnamon sugar mixture over top the cake. Spread the rest of the batter into the pan and sprinkle any remaining sugar mixture over the top. 

Bake in the preheated oven for 55 to 65 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the cake comes out clean. Allow to cool for 10 minutes before inverting onto a wire rack to cool completely.

Look at that crust!

My Valentines

We don't do much to celebrate Valentine's Day in the Lick The Bowl Household. When Mr. H and I first got together I had high expectations for this holiday, it is the day of love after all. I expected dinner out, a romantic movie at the theater, red flowers, puffy hearts, chocolate and all that other cuddly crap! Before you start rolling your eyes at me I have to mention that we started dating in high school and I didn't know any better. haha! It only took me one year together to realize that the holiday is way overrated.

We started dating in March of 1999, so he was off the hook that year, but in 2000, I expected the works and I was sadly disappointed. I was stubborn- heck, I still am- but as the man in the relationship I thought he needed to make the reservations for dinner WITHOUT me having to tell him. He didn't and I refused to make them myself so needless to say, we drove around town for a couple hours trying to get into any restaurant without having to wait for 3 hours for a table. A few hours later, we were both grumpy and hungry and decided to just go to our favorite Tex-Mex joint and enjoyed a fajita dinner and dessert for 2 for less than $20! I realized then that it didn't matter where we ate, whether or not I got chocolate truffles or long stemmed roses. It mattered that we were together.

I was a brat, I admit it, but I like to think that I've more than made up for it over the years. Now on Valentine's Day, I bake up a favorite chocolate dessert or a steak and potatoes dinner for the man I love. We are both happy to stay in and eat dinner in our lounge clothes in front of the television watching our usual DVR'd sitcoms. This year will be no different, though we have a new little Valentine to spend the evening with- he will be having milk.

This cake combines two of Mr. H's favorite things- chocolate cake and cinnamon sugar. They happen to be my favorites too. The vegan cake was light and moist, tender and quite flavorful. It was even simple enough that little Hayden helped me whip it up for his Poppa. My family loved this cake too. There was one large slice left and we all hovered around the pan with forks in hand and devoured it. I hope you'll enjoy it too.

Cinnamon Sugar Cocoa Cake adapted from Hawaii's Best Local Desserts via Food Librarian

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Cake:

• 2 1/2 cups flour
• 1 1/2 cups sugar
• 1/2 cup cocoa
• 2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2/3 cup canola oil
• 2 Tablespoons white vinegar
• 1 Tablespoon vanilla
• 2 cups cold coffee or cold water

Topping:

• 1/4 cup sugar
• 3/4 teaspoon cinnamon

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease a 9 x 13 pan and set aside. Combine topping ingredients in a small bowl and set aside.

Sift together the flour, sugar, cocoa, baking soda and salt into a large bowl. Whisk to combine.

Add oil, vinegar, vanilla and coffee or water to the bowl. Stir together with a whisk - but be sure you don't overbeat. (Do not make this in a KitchenAid mixer or electric mixer - a fork or whisk are just fine. You'll see bubbles because of the reaction of the baking soda and vinegar.)

When combined, immediately pour into the 9 x 13 pan. Evenly sprinkle with cinnamon and sugar topping.

Bake until toothpick comes out clean, about 30-35 minutes. Let cool and cut into squares.

Cherry On Top

A couple months ago I did a review for a cookbook called Sugar, Sugar. In my review, I mentioned that I had a list of recipes that I wanted to make from it. Well, this is one of them. The initial appeal to the recipe was because they were so strikingly red and beautiful. Can bars really be beautiful? I think so. The other part was that it used up a can of cherry pie filling that I had hiding in the back of my pantry.

I don't often make recipes that are made in a half-sheet pan, because there are only two of us and usually the recipe yields too much for us to eat. But I made these to take over to my in-laws for dinner. I left several bars for them, we ate several, then a couple days later I took the remaining bars to my mom's for dinner. To say that my little brother loved them was an understatement. He ate 6 of them! First he started off with one, then another, then another....you get the idea. I think he would have polished off the entire plate, but he was nice enough to leave some for my mom to enjoy as well. Had she given him the okay, he would have gladly eaten those too.

I thought these bars were going to be like bar cookies, but they really weren't. They were a cross between a cookie and a cake. Chewy and firm, but soft, gooey and moist all at the same time. My favorite part was the little buttery dumplings of dough that puffed up on the top of the glossy cherries. We ate these over the course of 4 days and as they aged, they got softer and gooier. I have plans to make these again for my brother so he can eat til his heart's content. He's young, tall and thin- he can stand to gain a few pounds :-).

Cherry Slices from Sugar, Sugar
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• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup butter, at room temperature
• 1 3/4 cups granulated sugar
• 1/2 cup packed light brown sugar
• 4 larges eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/4 teaspoon almond extract, optional (my addition)
• 1 (21-ounce) can cherry pie filling
• 1/4 cup powdered sugar, for dusting

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Grease an 11x17-inch rimmed baking sheet (or use non-stick cooking spray). Set aside.
In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, and salt. Set aside. Place the butter and both sugars in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment and beat on medium speed until creamy. Add the eggs, one at a time, and mix on low speed until well blended. Add the vanilla and almond extract, if using. Add the flour mixture, a little at a time, and beat until smooth. Reserve 1 cup of the batter.
Spread the remaining batter in the baking sheet. Spoon the cherry pie filling over the top. Drop the reserved cup of batter by teaspoonfuls over the pie filling. It should look uneven. When baked, the batter on the bottom rises and creates reservoirs of cherry filling.
Bake for 30-35 minutes, until the batter begins to turn golden. Remove from the oven and let cool completely. Dust with powdered sugar. Cut into 2-inch squares.

Chocolate Celebration Cake

We are just hours away from the new year and I'm rushing to get one last recipe onto this blog before the clock strikes 12. Why? Because I'll be doing my top 12 recipes of 2011 soon and this cake will be on the list! I bake several cakes a year and I've made and tasted several recipes for chocolate cake in my lifetime and this is one of the best I've ever eaten. The recipe was given to me by my cyber friend, China, (hi China!) and I'm so grateful for it. Her husband made this cake for her birthday this summer and she raved about it. I read the reviews online and so did everyone else.

Happy Birthday M!

I baked this chocolate cake for a very special lady, my mother-in-laws' ex sister-in-law. Let's call her M. M was married to Mr. H's uncle many years ago. Got that? He (the uncle not Mr. H) is kind of a loser (haha!) so we ditched him and kept her after their divorce. She really does feel like part of the family. Scratch that, she is part of the family and this year for her birthday she decided to spend it with us, which gave me the opportunity to bake a birthday cake. Together with my mother-in-law we prepared dinner and dessert. She requested "anything chocolate" so I turned to this recipe by Gale Gand.

This cake makes a lot of batter and produces a large cake. The one thing that makes this cake unique is that it is made with all brown sugar- 3 cups to be exact. Yes, that's a lot of sugar but it makes a lot of cake too. It was mighty tasty and moist thanks to the addition of sour cream. It also has hot coffee in the batter, but you could substitute hot water if you like. The coffee just brings out the intensity of the chocolate without actually tasting it. I happen to like coffee and chocolate together so I paired it with a mocha cream cheese frosting. The combination was killer good. And as I mentioned it's making my top 12 list of 2011 so you know it's a good recipe. If you're needing a new chocolate cake recipe, I sincerely hope you'll give this one a try. You don't even need to use my frosting recipe, any frosting will do or heck, just eat it plain. But please put it on your list of things to make this upcoming year, hopefully sooner than later.

Chocolate Layer Cake from Gale Gand via Food Network

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• 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened at room temperature
• 3 cups light brown sugar, packed
• 4 eggs
• 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
• 3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1 tablespoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 3 cups sifted cake flour
• 1 1/3 cups sour cream
• 1 1/2 cups hot coffee

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Butter and flour 3 (9-inch) cake pans. Cut 3 circles of waxed paper or parchment paper to fit the bottoms of the pans, then press them in.

In a mixer fitted with a whisk attachment (or using a hand mixer), cream the butter until smooth. Add the sugar and eggs and mix until fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add the vanilla, cocoa, baking soda and salt and mix. Add 1/2 of the flour, then 1/2 of the sour cream and mix. Repeat with the remaining flour and sour cream. Drizzle in the hot coffee and mix until smooth. The batter will be thin.

Pour into the prepared pans and bake until the tops are firm to the touch and a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean (a few crumbs are okay), about 35 minutes. Halfway through the baking, quickly rotate the pans in the oven to ensure even baking, but otherwise try not to open the oven.

Let cool in the pan 10 minutes. Turn out onto wire racks and let cool completely before frosting.

Mocha Cream Cheese Frosting by Monica h

• 1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
• 8 ounces cream cheese, room temperature
• 1 teaspoon espresso powder
• 1/2 cocoa powder
• 2 teaspoons vanilla
• 3-4 cups powdered sugar
• 2-3 Tablespoons heavy cream

In a large bowl, cream butter and cream cheese and mix until light and fluffy. Scrape down the bowl if necessary.

Add the cocoa and espresso powder and beat on low until just combined then add the vanilla and mix thoroughly.

Gradually add powdered sugar one cup at a time, scraping down the bowl if necessary. Start with 3 cups adding more if necessary. Once frosting is sweetened, thick and creamy add the heavy cream and mix on medium speed- the frosting will thicken slightly. Don't overwhip once you've added the cream.

Frost cooled cake layers. Refrigerate any leftover frosting. Refrigerate any frosted cake, but eat at room temperature for best flavor and texture.

Thank you for making 2011 such a memorable year for Lick The Bowl Good. I'm looking forward to another year of baking and licking bowls with you all. Happy New Year!

Oh, and the winner of the Shabby Apple apron is Julie of Fruitcake In The Kitchen. Congrats Julie!

Tastes Like Fall- Land O' Lakes Cinnamon Sugar Butter Spread and Giveaway (Closed)

I'd love to give you a list of things I've been creating in the kitchen but the list would be embarrassingly short and laughable. My days are all running into each other and I only know what day it is if I happen to leave the house, which is about once a week. I can tell you I make excellent breast milk 8 times daily- Hayden's one happy camper :-) Despite all that, I did manage to bake these awesomely gooey sticky-bun pumpkin muffins today. It took twice as long as usual since I had to stop every five minutes to rock Hayden back to sleep, but they eventually got made.

These beautiful pecans are from my in-laws pecan trees!

My MIL subscribes to Southern Living magazine and when she's done reading it, she gives it to me. Except this week, Mr. H read it first and pointed out this recipe in their "Nuts About Pecans" recipe section. Last month's magazine was all about apples and this one was about pecans- both have me drooling. I chose to make these muffins though because I needed to incorporate a special ingredient into them. Land O' Lakes now makes a Cinnamon Sugar Butter Spread and they sent me a couple coupons to try out their new product. It really is delicious and creamy and loaded with cinnamon. It's a sweet buttery spread but not overly so. I can imagine this spread on toasted bagels, pancakes and even baked sweet potatoes. Since it is so new, I had difficulty finding it at my local grocery stores. I searched 4 different locations before finding it at Wal-Mart.

For this recipe, I used the Land O' Lakes Cinnamon Sugar Butter Spread in place of canola oil. It worked out very well and intensified the cinnamon flavor in the muffins. I halved the recipe, made 12 muffins and had a little leftover batter to make a couple mini loaves. The pumpkin muffins were tender and moist while the nutty topping was sweet and sticky. They're definitely sweeter than the average muffin and would make great individual desserts. Mr. H and I shared one shortly after coming out of the oven and he declared that they tasted like Fall. I would agree and couldn't be happier that Summer is finally over. It was brutally hot these past few months and I gladly welcome cooler weather. I just hope it gets here soon because it's almost October and it was still over 100 degrees today!

Sticky-Bun Pumpkin Muffins adapted from Southern Living- October 2011

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• 1 cup pecan halves and pieces
• 1/4 cup butter, melted
• 1/4 cup firmly packed brown sugar
• 1 Tbsp. light corn syrup
• 1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 1/4 cups granulated sugar
• 1 tsp. ground cinnamon
• 1/4 tsp. ground nutmeg
• 1/4 tsp. ground all-spice
• 1/2 tsp. baking soda
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 8 oz. canned pumpkin puree
• 6.5 oz. Land O' Lakes Cinnamon Sugar Butter, room temp.
• 2 large eggs
• 1/3 cup water

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Spray a 12-cup* muffin tin with non stick cooking spray and set aside.

Stir together melted butter, brown sugar and corn syrup. Spoon 1 teaspoonful butter mixture into each muffin cup. Spread 1 Tablespoon of pecans over melted butter.

Stir together flour, sugar, spices, baking soda and salt in a large bowl, and make a well in the center of the mixture.

Whisk together pumpkin, Land O' Lakes Cinnamon Sugar Butter, eggs and water. Add to dry ingredients and stir until just moistened.

Spoon batter into prepared muffin pan, filling 3/4 full.

Bake at 350F for 22-28 minutes or until a wooden toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

Invert pan immediately to remove muffins, then arrange muffins on a cooling rack. Spoon any remaining toppings in muffin cup over the muffins. Let cool 5 minutes.

*Makes 12-18 muffins

Alternatively, you could omit the sticky buttery nutty topping and just bake the bread with the pecans mixed in or you could place the chopped pecans on top of the batter and top with cinnamon sugar and bake in muffin tins or loaf pans. Bake until the center comes out clean.

Now onto the giveaway part of this post! The folks at Land O' Lakes have graciously sponsored this giveaway. They would like to offer one of you lucky readers the chance to win this "Make Breakfast Better" prize pack including a non-stick waffle skillet, flexible spatula, stainless-steel spreaders and more.

All you have to do is leave a comment on this post telling me how you'd use the Land O' Lakes Cinnamon Sugar Butter Spread. One comment per person please and be sure to leave your contact info or link back to your blog should you be chosen as the winner.

I'll announce the winner early next week. Good luck to you all and thank you Land O' Lakes for the cinnamony goodness and the giveaway offer.

Baby Shower: Pecan Butter Balls

Here's the first baby shower recipe I promised you. These were pretty amazing tasting so I thought I'd share this recipe first. My neighbors bake these every year at Christmastime along with about 6 other homemade cookies. They make pecan tassies, rugelash, thumbprint cookies and other bite-sized morsels but these are my absolute favorites. I like them so much that when they walk the plate or box of cookies to my door, I immediately eat these first without sharing.

I've always referred to these cookies as Mexican Wedding Cookies, but my grandma and mom said they have to be crescent shaped to be called that, because that's what they're used to. They're essentially the same thing but round. Mexican Wedding Cookies, also known as Russian Tea Cakes, are rich, nutty shortbread cookies rolled in powdered sugar. The cookie is not specifically connected to any one culture, but traditionally they are served to guests at special occasions or holidays because they are made with rich and expensive foods (the richest butter, finest sugar and choicest nuts).

And cheap they are not. I doubled the recipe, and the chopped nuts and butter alone cost about $15. I made these with help from my momma (Thank you Mom!) for thank you favors at my baby shower. Because it was a special day, I wasn't really concerned with the price of making them because I knew they would be homemade and fresher than anything else I could buy on a grocery store shelf. They also were far less expensive to make than other party favors. I needed 25-30 favors so each little gift bag including packaging costs about $1.00. Not too bad!

These little snowball like cookies just melt in your mouth. Once they hit your tongue, the powdered sugar just dissipates. The buttery cookie center is slightly crunchy then they too just melt away. I don't know how else to describe them. They're like lime melt-aways in texture but they're nutty and buttery. The cookie itself has very little sugar in them since they're coated twice in powdered sugar once they're baked. But the final product isn't too sweet, they're just perfect. I used a small ice cream scoop to form the balls, but they could be made even smaller since they puff slightly in the oven. I hope you, too, will make these for your next special occasion or holiday.

Pecan Butter Balls (Mexican Wedding Cookies)

adapted from Cooks Catalog

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• 1 cup unsalted butter, room temp
• 1/4 granulated cup sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2 teaspoons vanilla
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 1/2 cups finely chopped pecans or walnuts
• powdered sugar for coating

Cream butter and sugar together. Add salt and vanilla.

Slowly add the flour to the butter/sugar mixture just until it forms a dough. Add the chopped nuts and mix until just combined.

Roll dough into half inch balls and place on parchment lined cookie sheets about an inch apart.

Bake 30 minutes at 350 degrees F.

As soon as they come out of the oven, roll them in powdered sugar while the cookies are still hot. Be careful because the cookies are extremely hot and fragile. Place cookies on a cooling rack.

Once cookies have cooled completely, roll them in powdered sugar again.

Makes 60-70 cookies.

Hope everyone has a great week. Next recipe: Mini Cheesecakes with lemon curd and berries!