Mother's Pecan Butter Balls (Christmas)

Every family has one of these recipes. The one written on a stained index card, tucked into a tin box, pulled out every December without fail.

These pecan butter balls are pure simplicity: sifted flour, sugar, salt, a full cup of butter, vanilla, and two cups of finely chopped pecans. That’s the whole list.

The dough is rich and sandy, shaped into little balls and baked low and slow at 325°F until they’re just barely golden. While still warm, they get rolled in sugar (powdered or granulated, your call) that clings and melts into a sweet, crackly shell.

Store them between layers of wax paper in a tin, and they’ll keep for weeks. If they last that long.

Kitchen Tips

• Chop the pecans fine. Big pieces make the dough hard to shape into smooth balls. A food processor pulsed a few times gets you the right texture.
• Work the butter in by hand or with a pastry cutter. You want a sandy, shortbread-like dough, not something whipped and fluffy.
• Roll in sugar while still warm. This is non-negotiable. The heat melts the sugar just enough that it bonds to the cookie. Cold cookies won’t hold their coating.