Mexican wedding cakes

Would you look at those? These are without a doubt the best cookies/biscuits/nutty shortbready things I've ever made. I had to check with lovely Liz that the name was right but she assures me it is (the nearest I've ever been to Mexico is Wisconsin). But Mexico, I LOVE YOU FOR THESE COOKIES.

They're tiny little shortbread balls with chopped pecans in, light as a cloud and rolled in icing sugar so they're super sweet. I can't recommend that you make them enough, make them over any other recipe on this site, or on the whole internet.

you'll need:

1/3 cup vegan margarine

1/2 cup icing/confectioners sugar

1 3/4 cups plain flour

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 cup chopped pecans

extra icing sugar for rolling around in

This amount would make about 40 little balls.

See how few ingredients? It's because, not only do they taste great, they're so easy! They make kind of a mess, and you should definitely make tiny ones because taking a bite into something covered in icing sugar is sure to turn your brown eyes blue.

Chop your nuts by hand, not in the blitzer, you need 'em chunky! You don't have to use pecans, the original recipe was actually walnuts but I didn't have any, and I love pecans. You could even try chocolate chips, I bet that'd be amazing.

Cream the margarine in a bowl until it's smooth and workable. Then add the icing sugar and beat again. Lastly, add the flour and salt and a touch of vanilla essence if you have it, don't worry if you don't.

It should turn into a bowl of crumbs, don't expect a dough because you won't get one. Now add the chopped nuts and stir them in.

Now scoop up about a teaspoonful and press it together in your palm, keep switching the mix between your hands and squishing it until it's a firm little ball, then place it on a silicon baking sheet, or a non stick sheet and gently flatten it a tiny bit, just so it's got a flat bottom. Now do the rest. Yeah you'll be there for a while but I promise it's worth it.

It takes a while to suss out your own oven, mine cooked at gas mark 5 (about 200C/385F) for about 9 minutes, you don't want them to brown, just to firm up and feel cooked. Maybe do the first batch as a test, keep checking them every minute or so and then you'll know for the rest of the batches.

While they're in the oven, tip a good sized amount of icing sugar into a small bowl ready to roll them in. Once they're done, take them off the baking sheet, put the next batch on, and put it into the oven. Take a cooked ball and roll it around in the icing sugar, then do the next and the next.

Once you come back to the first ball you did, roll it again, and then the next and the next. Each ball needs about 3 coats and you should find that once you've done a whole batch 3 times, the next batch is cooked. How satisfying!

So do them all, then pile them up in a bowl and watch them disappear in about 10 seconds. Probably into your own mouth.

Oh MAN, I've got to go and make some more. I'm drooling.