Peppermint Pecan Snowball Cookies

The Steps

1. If you plan on chilling the dough for 30 minutes, wait to preheat the oven. Otherwise, preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
2. First, toast the pecans. (OPTIONAL. you can skip this step and just chop them finely)
3. Chop full pecans into coarse pieces (you’ll chop them again after toasting; if you got pecan bits, skip this step). Heat a dry nonstick skillet over high heat. Once it is hot reduce the heat to medium and then add in the nuts (quick burst of heat will extract some of the oils in the nuts and keep them from sticking to the pan).
4. Cook, stirring CONSTANTLY, and flipping frequently until you can *just* begin to smell the toastiness. Get them off the pan quickly once they smell fragrant. (Note that nuts are extremely easy to burn so watch carefully. They also continue cooking for a little even after removing them from the heat.) Allow to completely cool and then chop once more to get very tiny bits.
5. In a large bowl, add in the room temperature (do not melt at all!) butter, 3/4 cup powdered sugar, and vanilla.
6. Beat until light and creamy. It should look like a thick mayo.
7. Add in the salt and the flour and mix with hand mixers. It’s going to seem like the dough won’t come together, but keep going — it will! This dough is extremely thick.
8. Add in the toasted pecans and peppermint crunch sprinkles and stir to combine.
9. Roll out small balls of dough — about 1 tablespoon each.
10. I roll out the dough balls and chill, covered, for 30 minutes and then bake. You can just bake them without chilling too, but they spread a tiny bit more.
11. Bake for 12-14 minutes or until lightly browned at the edges and top.
12. Remove and let cool for 3 minutes.
13. While they are cooling, blend or pulse the full sized candy canes in a food processor or blender. Pulse until they resemble powdered sugar.
14. Toss with the remaining 3/4 cup powdered sugar. Roll the cookies into this mixture and then let completely cool.
15. Once cool, roll again in the powdered sugar + peppermint mixture.