This is the final cookie in my Holiday Cookies Series! If you’ve been following along, you have already gotten to see my Grain Free Candy Cane Cookies, Paleo Spritz Cookies, Grain Free Gingerbread Men, and my Grain Free Sugar Cookies with Frosting . It’s been great hearing your feedback and seeing your photos of your creations from my recipes and here’s one more!!!
Whether you call them Mexican Wedding Cookies, Sandtarts, Nut Butter Balls or Russian Tea Cakes, these buttery cookies rolled in powdered sugar have been a favorite this time of year for many of us. The problem? These cookies are traditionally made with 3 primary ingredients:
-BUTTER
-SUGAR
-WHITE FLOUR
Ouch, that’s not gonna work! So I decided to do what I can and create my own version and I think they are delicious. So delicious I am delivering half the batch to my neighbors in about 5 minutes! So if you’re a fan of these tasty treats, give this one a try! I think you’ll find it is surprisingly reminiscent of the original without being sickeningly sweet or made with, um, junk.
Ingredients:
For the Cookie:
- 8 ounces pecan pieces
- 1/2 cup coconut palm sugar
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 2 tablespoons full fat coconut milk
- 1/2 teaspoon 100% vanilla
- 1-3 tablespoons tapioca starch
- 1 tablespoon coconut flour
For the “Powdered Sugar”:
- 1/4 cup tapioca starch
- 1/4 cup coconut palm sugar
- Preheat oven to 350
- Grind pecan pieces in a small blender or food processor until they make pecan meal/flour
- Combine the pecan meal with all remaining cookie ingredients in a mixing bowl; start with 1 tablespoon tapioca and work up as needed if dough is too wet
- Using your hands or a fork, mix the ingredients until they are combined thoroughly
- Roll the dough into balls (I was able to make 14-16) and place on a foil lined baking sheet
- Bake for about 10 minutes; while cookies are baking, grind remaining palm sugar (small blender or coffee grinder) and mix with the tapioca starch in a small bowl
- Remove baking sheet and allow cookies to cool for 5 minutes
- Roll the slightly cooled cookies in the “powdered sugar” mixture and serve
Do the pecans need to be ground?Typically wedding cookies have ground nuts correct? Thanks!
Yes, it’s been corrected – was rushing off to a holiday party when I wrote this!
OMG – these are my favorite and I’ve never been able to make them with my kiddo before! Thank you!!!
These look yummy! I want to make them, but don’t have tapioca starch. My question is would arrowroot powder work in place of it? Since it’s a starch as well. Thanks!
Yes! That should work fine 🙂
These are fabulous!! Our new fave!! Also tried the gingerbread…good but couldn’t get them to crisp (any ideas? ), and the sugar cookies were a disaster…lol These, however, made it onto my gift trays. Now I have to make more for us. 🙂 Thank you so much for the egg free recipes!
Susan, for the gingerbread, the thinner you roll them and the longer you bake them, the crispier they will get. Thicker and shorter bake times yield chewier cookies. I am not sure what happened with the sugar cookies 🙁 Sad!
Will these work as well with other nuts? I’m out of pecans, but have walnuts and almonds.
I would think so, the flavor might vary slightly but I would think they’d work!
I just made these and they flattened out like pancakes when I baked them. I’m disappointed and wondering why!
That’s so interesting, I’ve never had that happen nor have I received feedback before. I’m wondering if there was extra fat that made them spread?
Mine too 🙁