CHOCOLATE MEXICAN WEDDING COOKIES

A REAL hit with all of my family and friends. This was my annual “new” Christmas cookie, and everyone raved, although I got a few frowns at the richness and obvious level of fat and calories.

After four batches, it was a bit too much grating of chocolate (hint: you do not need to purchase expensive German baking chocolate, but a large,firm and thick Hershey’s Special Dark bar works just as well and costs $1.00 at WalMart…try freezing it for an hour before grating…all chocolate gets mushy when you’re grating down to the last teensy bit, unless you have a food processor that can be cleaned after doing chocolate). I used unsalted butter and added one-fourth tsp.

salt. I didn’t taste any noticeable difference with the cinnamon, but I kept putting it in there. I had to bake 22 minutes to get a bit more crunch to the outside, yet the inside was still nice. At 18 minutes the cookie was quite soft and crumbly. The chocolate powdered sugar coating was really the best part of the recipe.

INGREDIENTS:

1 cup butter, softened
1/3 cup confectioners’ sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup ground pecans
1/2 cup German sweet chocolate, grated
3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 pinch salt
1/2 cup confectioners’ sugar
1/4 cup German sweet chocolate, grated.

DIRECTIONS:

In a large bowl, cream the butter and 1/3 cup confectioner’s sugar until light and fluffy. Add the vanilla extract.
In a separate bowl, combine the flour, ground pecans, 1/2 cup ground chocolate, cinnamon and salt; mix well.
Gradually add the dry ingredients to the creamed mixture.
Wrap dough in plastic wrap and chill 1 to 2 hours, or until firm.
Preheat oven to 325 degrees F (180 degrees C).
Shape the dough into 1-inch balls. Place balls 1 inch apart on an ungreased baking sheet. Bake 15 to 18 minutes, or until the cookies are firm to the touch. Cool 1 minute on the baking sheet, then transfer to a wire rack …