Pistachio and cherry Mexican Wedding Cookies

This recipe has been sitting in my cook this next notebook for six years.  What a slacker I am!  Well, I finally have made these wonderful balls of pure delight and I can truthfully tell you that I waited six years too long.  They are just perfect for the holidays, but really you can eat them all year long just because they will make you very happy.  They’ll just melt in your mouth and you will have to have another and another.  Have lots of company when they come out of the oven is all I have to say.  You will love them because they are so good and there is really no way to mess these up unless you cook them too long.

The story about the pistachios is something that you should pay attention unless you like shelling these little things.  At my Publix they had no shelled unsalted pistachios. I was so sad because I spent 1 hour shelling them.  It was not a fun job.  So before you make this recipe find yourself some shelled unsalted pistachios and your life will be easier.  Enough said.

I have been making a recipe similar to this since college, but I have never used the mixer.  Why not?   Don’t know?  Just thought you could not I guess.  You will love the ease of using the mixer and the results are magnificent.  The only glitch that I found was chopping the pistachios.  I loved the way that Bon Appetit photographed the cookies with the red and green.  It was  so holiday.  Not only did I have to shell the nuts, but I also had to make sure that the skin was removed from the pistachios so that their true color could show.  The recipe was not very specific about the size of the chopped nuts.  I made the erroneous mistake of chopping in my small blender.  Don’t do this.  Chop them on a cutting board with a knife.  This is a more controllable chop.  Then the true red and green colors will surely show when you bite into that wonderful cookie.  You should really try these for the holidays.  Don’t wait six years.  What a waste of a good cookie!

Pistachio and Cherry Mexican Wedding Cookies  from Bon Appetit December 2006

Yield 60 cookies

Ingredients:

• 2 cups or 4 sticks unsalted butter, room temperature
• 1 cup powdered sugar and more for coating
• 2 tablespoons vanilla extract
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup shelled unsalted pistachios roughly chopped
• 1 cup dried tart cherries or dried cranberries ( I used cherries)
• 3 1/3 cups sifted cake flour
• 1 2/3 cups sifted all purpose flour

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Line rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper or butter the pan.
3. Using an electric mixer, beat 2 cups butter and 1 cup powdered sugar until fluffy.
4. Beat in vanilla and salt.
5. Add pistachios and cherries.
6. Using a spatula, stir in all flour.  DO NOT overmix the dough.
7. Shape dough by generous tablespoonfuls into football-shaped oval.
8. Place on prepared cookie sheet about 1 inch apart.
9. Bake cookies 1 sheet at a time for about 15 minutes just until bottoms begin to brown.
10. Cool on sheet for 10 minutes before coating.
11. Pour generous amount of powdered sugar into medium bowl.
12. Working with 5  to 6 warm cookies at a time gently turn to coat thickly.
13. Transfer to waxed paper.  Let the cookies soak up some sugar.
14. Repeat coating.
15. Cool completely.
16. Store in an airtight container for up to 4 days, but will not last that long because everyone will enjoy them quickly.

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