Ball Week! - Day 5: Pecan Shortbread Balls and Coconut Shortbread Balls

Welcome to day five of ball week and it's another two for one ball day.  Today we will be discussing Pecan Shortbread Balls and Coconut Shortbread Balls.  These recipes are quite similar so I decided to write one post on both of them.

Both of these recipes are different flavored shortbread cookies that are rolled into balls, baked and rolled in powdered sugar.

I selected these two cookie balls as options for my bride and groom's reception because all the other options have one thing in common... chocolate.  Both of the peanut butter balls, the Nutella Rice Krispie balls and the cheesecake balls are all dipped in chocolate and the bourbon balls have melted chocolate in them.  Because of that, I thought it would be nice to have something a little different to choose from.

The Pecan Shortbread Balls have about 64 aliases.  I've seen very similar cookies called Italian Wedding Cookies, Russian Tea Cookies, Pecan Sandies and Butter Balls.  Fine, that's only four.

These cookies are made by creaming butter with powdered sugar and vanilla, then adding flour and ground pecans.  There are no eggs in these cookies which is what allows them to hold their shape and what makes them dense, crumbly and shortbready.

The dough gets rolled into balls and baked.  I used this recipe for the Pecan Shortbread Balls from Searching for Dessert but I did add more flour to the dough... a lot more flour.  The recipe calls for 1 cup and I used 1 1/2 cups.  You see, I wanted to be extra sure that the cookies maintained their ball shape.  When I made the dough following the recipe it just seemed WAY too soft so I was worried it would spread out while it baked.  I am so glad I made this adjustment because the balls held their shape perfectly!  Hooray!!




After the cookies are baked, they get cooled completely and rolled in powdered sugar.

Let me tell you that rolling cookies in powdered sugar is ten times faster and easier than coating balls in chocolate so this step was a relief after dipping everything else.

One beautifully round, nutty, sweet and powdery cookie ball down and one more to go.

The recipe for Coconut Shortbread Balls is essentially the same as the recipe for Pecan Shortbread Balls, you just trade out the ground pecans for coconut.

At the risk of repeating myself... cream the butter with the powdered sugar then stir in the flour and coconut.  Easy.

I used Martha Stewart's recipe exactly except that I chilled the dough for about an hour before I baked the cookies which I think helped them to hold their shape while they baked.

These smelled stupendous while they baked!  The smell of baking coconut makes my mouth water so it took a lot of discipline not to eat one of these warm, straight out of the oven.  I did, however, manage to control myself and I waited for them to cool and rolled them in powdered sugar before I gobbled one up. 

The veridct?

Me - I liked them both very much.   The cookies were dense, crumbly and not too sweet.  The powdered sugar on the outside added the perfect touch of sweetness.  If I was forced to pick, I think I'd go with the coconut because I've had a lot of pecan shortbreads in the past so the coconut version was a bit more unique.

The Happy Couple - those chose neither.  They have no issues with having all chocolate options on the dessert table and I'm cool with that.  I also think they were a bit worried that a guest (or member of the bridal party) would get powdered sugar on their pretty dress or suit.

Hold on a minute...  Ball Week is supposed to be over and there are only three selections... Peanut Butter Balls, Cheesecake Balls and Nutella Rice Krispie Balls.  If you remember from the first Ball Week post, I said that the almost newlyweds picked four different kinds of balls to be served at the reception.  Oh no!

Well, I tricked you.  There's a bonus day to Ball Week and you'll just have to wait until Monday night to see the final selection.

Julie