Mocha Nut Butterballs
(from Ryan77’s recipe box)
Try rolling the cookies in sweetened powdered chocolate instead of powdered sugar or dip the cookies in melted chocolate.
Source: Joanne Fluke
Prep time: 10 minutes
Cook time: 15 minutes
Serves 48 people
Categories: Cookies
Ingredients
- 1 cup softened butter
- 1/2 cup white sugar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 Tablespoon instant coffee powder or espresso powder
- 1/4 cup cocoa powder
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 13/4 cups all-purpose flour
- 11/2 cups finely chopped pecans, walnuts, or hazelnuts
- powdered sugar to coat the baked cookies
Directions
-
Preheat oven to 325 degrees F., rack in the middle position
-
Soften the butter. Mix in the white sugar, vanilla extract, instant coffee powder, cocoa, and salt.
-
Add the flour in half-cup increments, mixing after each addition. (You don’t have to be exact. It won’t come out even anyway! Just make sure the flour is added in three parts.)
-
Stir in the nuts. Do your best to make sure that they’re evenly distributed.
-
Form the dough into one-inch balls (just pat them into shape with your fingers) and place them on an ungreased baking sheet, 12 to a standard sheet. Press them down very slightly (they’re supposed to look like balls, but you don’t want them to roll off on their way to the oven.)
-
Bake the cookie balls at 325 degrees F., for 12 to 15 minutes, until they are set. (Mine took 14 minutes.)
-
Move the cookies from the cookie sheet to a wire rack. Let them cool on the rack completely.
-
When the cookies are completely cool, dip them in powdered sugar to coat them. (If you roll them in powdered sugar while they’re still warm, they have a tendency to break apart.) Let them rest for several minutes on the wire rack and then store them in a cookie jar or a covered container.