Pecan Snowdrops

This is one of the cookies I brought to the MLFB Cookie Exchange last Saturday. This recipe comes in many guises-- Pecan Balls, Snowdrop Cookies, Snowball Cookies, etc...but whatever you might call them, they are little spheres of crumbly goodness. This particular recipe was my grandmother's. It was on a card, written in her elegant early-20th century upbringing script, nestled in her recipe box for decades.

Ingredients:

• 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
• 1/2 cup confectioner's (powdered) sugar
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 tsp water
• 2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 1/2 cups chopped pecans
  

Cream the butter and powdered sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer. Add the flour and salt and combine. Add water, nuts, and vanilla and combine. Chill dough for an hour.

Preheat over to 350 degrees. Pinch off wads of dough and roll into balls approximately 1 inch across. Arrange on baking sheet. Bake for 15 minutes. Prepare a small bowl of powdered sugar. Roll the cookies in the sugar once while still warm, allow to cool completely, and roll again.