Pecan Snowball Cookies

To the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment (or large mixing bowl and electric handheld mixer), add the butter, and beat on high speed for about 1 to 2 minutes, or until soft, fluffy, and creamy. Stop to scrape down the sides of the bowl.

Add 1 cup confectioners' sugar, vanilla extract, and initially beat on low speed to incorporate the sugar, and then ramp up to high speed until the mixture is soft and fluffy. Stop to scrape down the sides of the bowl.

Add the dry ingredients mixture (flour, nuts, salt) and mix to just incorporate; don't overmix.

Using a small 1-tablespoon cookie scoop or similar, form approximately 24 equally sized mounds of dough, place them on a large dinner plate, cover with plasticwrap and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes, or longer (up to 3 days**). Tips - Do NOT chill the whole bowl of dough and then later on try to later scoop it out because it'll be dry, crumbly, difficult to work with, and this chiseling method is not advised. Use a large dinner plate and find some space in your fridge for 30 to 60 minutes to chill the dough.

While the dough is chilling or before you are ready to bake the cookies, preheat the oven to 400F and line two baking sheets with parchment paper or Silpats; set aside. Note - You can also use a 375F oven rather than 400F. The cookies will take longer to bake but will be less prone to burning on the bottoms and you won't need to watch them quite as carefully.

Place the chilled cookie dough mounds on the baking sheets. Tips - I bake about 12 cookies per sheet. They don't spread much. I bake them one sheet at a time in the center oven rack, rotating the pan once midway through baking, for optimal results. I try to avoid baking two sheets of cookies at once because the sheet baking on the bottom tends to not turn out quite as well as the other sheet.

If you're baking at 400F, the cookies will bake for about 7 to 10 minutes. At 375F, they'll bake for 10 to 15 minutes. Tips - Because this is quite a hot oven cookies, keep a very close eye on the cookies, especially the bottoms, and bake just until they are barely golden browned and the tops are set. The cookies will continue to firm up as the cool and the bottoms will also darken a bit more, so if in doubt, I recommend pulling them out sooner rather than later. Watch your cookies, in your oven, and not the clock when determining doneness since all ovens, baking sheets, climates, etc. vary so much.

Allow the cookies to cool for about 10 minutes on the baking sheet before rolling them in confectioners' sugar.

Add a generous amount (at least 1 cup) of confectioners' sugar to a small bowl, and roll each baked cookie though the sugar. Repeat, assembly line style, until they are all rolled.

Optional but recommended, roll all the cookies through additional confectioners' sugar a second time. Tips - I do this because in the first round of sugar rolling, the sugar tends to melt into the warm cookies a bit and while delicious, it doesn't give the visual cues of a really snow-covered snowball. For this reason, I roll twice. First round of rolling is for sweetness, second round also adds sweetness but adds the visual effect, too.

Cookies will keep airtight at room temp for up to 10 days. Obviously cookies are best totally fresh, but as cookies go, snowballs are good keepers, making them great for cookie exchanges or as make-ahead cookies.** Baked snowball cookies will keep airtight in the freezer for up to 4 monhts.