Beat the butter and ½ cup of the powdered sugar in a bowl until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add vanilla extract and beat until vanilla is completely incorporated. Add the flour to the bowl 1 cup at a time mixing with a hand held mixer until the dough becomes too thick or the mixer begins to strain.
Slowly add the remaining flour and the finely chopped pecans to the bowl. Mix until the pecans are evenly distributed throughout the dough. Shape the dough into one and half inch round balls and place on a cookie sheet leaving 2 inches between each cookies. Bake at 350°F for 10 to 12 minutes until lightly golden.
Remove the cookie sheet from the oven and cool the cookies for 3 minutes or until they are cool enough to handle. Drop each warm cookie one at a time into the bowl of the remaining ½ cup of powdered sugar. Roll the warm cookies in the sugar coating the cookie thickly on all sides.
These Mexican Wedding Cookies are the perfect cookie recipe for a holiday cookie exchange. The recipe calls for 5 simple ingredients that when combined create a buttery shortbread cookie that is crunchy and sweet.