Biscochitos (Mexican Wedding Cookies) - cooking recipe

Ingredients

2 cups walnuts or 2 cups pecans
2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
3/4 teaspoon salt
16 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
1/3 cup superfine sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups confectioners' sugar (for dusting)

Preparation

Adjust oven racks to upper-middle and lower-middle positions. Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. Line 2 large baking sheets with parchment paper.
Using a food processor, grind 1 cup of nuts to coarse cornmeal texture. Transfer to a medium size bowl. Using either the food processor or chopping by hand, coarsely chop the remaining cup of nuts. Transfer to the same bowl and add the flour and salt.
In a large bowl, either using hand mixer or stand mixer, beat the butter and superfine sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in the vanilla extract. With mixer on low, slowly add the flour-nut mixture until combined, about 30 seconds. Scrape the bowl and beaters, then continue to beat on low speed until the dough is cohesive.
Working with one tablespoon at a time, press and roll dough together into balls and lay on prepared sheets, about 1 inch apart.
Bake cookies until pale gold and the bottoms are just beginning to brown, about 18 minutes, switching and rotating baking sheets halfway through the baking.
Let cookies cook on the cooking sheet for 10 minutes, then move to cooling rack to cool completely, about 1 hour.
Using either a bowl or a paper bag filled with confectioners' sugar, roll the cookies to coat. Just before serving, re-roll and gently shake off any excess.