Noel Nut Balls
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Martha Stewart Living Television
- Yield Makes about 5 dozen
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Ingredients
- 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
- 2 tablespoons honey
- 1 teaspoon bourbon or orange juice
- 2 1/4 cups sifted all-purpose flour
- 3/4 cup chopped pecans (best if chopped by hand)
- 1/2 cup sifted confectioners' sugar, plus more for rolling
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
Directions
- In an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream butter and honey until fluffy. Add bourbon, and beat to combine. In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, pecans, confectioners' sugar, and salt. Add to the butter mixture, and beat to combine. Wrap in plastic wrap, and refrigerate for 3 hours.
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line baking sheets with Silpats (French nonstick baking mats) or parchment paper. Roll the dough, 2 teaspoons at a time, into balls. Place on prepared baking sheets, leaving 2 inches between them. Bake until brown around the edges, 12 to 13 minutes. Transfer to wire racks to cool completely. Roll in confectioners' sugar to coat.
I saw a great tip on the show that is not mentioned here. Before wrapping the dough in plastic form it into a flat disk. When you remove the dough from the refrigerator cut it using a grid pattern into about 1 inch cubes. Then you can take each cube of dough and roll it between your two palms to form the ball. This doesn't make anywhere near 5 dozen, I got 3 dozen cookies.
This is a great recipe. Everyone loves them and they are easy to make. My only complaint is the claimed yield of 5 dozen. I don't make them too big and yet I've never got more than 3 dozen. To get 5 dozen you would need to make them the size of a marble.
Thanks for re-running this recipe on your Christmas Cookie Special! It is superb and will be our family favorite for years to come!
Thanks for re-running this recipe on your Christmas Cookie Special! It is superb and will be our family favorite for years to come!
These are YUMMY!
I made up my own variation of them, that I called "Noel Nib Balls"
Make the cookies according to the recipe above, substituting 1/2 cup of cocoa nibs (roasted cocoa beans) and 1/4 cup of pecans for the 3/4 cup of pecans listed.
Add cocoa powder to the powdered sugar used for coating the baked and cooled cookies.
A chocolaty treat with no additional fat!!! These were the hit of my Christmas Cookie platters!
I made thse for Christmas thinking that these were a type of Bourbon Balls. They were ok...not great. Mine turned out like Cookies, Not at all what I was expecting. Don't overcook...take out of the oven before the edges turn brown...they taste good...just not expecting cookies!
Merry Christmas!
I made these on Sunday,
I've been looking for this version for years. My mom made it with orange juice. But her version, i thought had passed with her in 86'. Thank you Martha for giving it back to me.