Pecan Snowballs — Can this really be a vintage recipe?

   I have a whole bookshelf of antique and vintage cookbooks plus promo recipe booklets that I’ve collected over the years, including my grandmother’s domestic science textbook. It’s fun to look back at those books from the early 1900s and imagine what life must have been like during an earlier era.

     But when I pulled out one of my favorite cookbooks recently, it suddenly dawned on me that it could be considered vintage! According to Ask.com, “Anything that predates the 1920's is considered an antique. Vintage items date from the 1920's-1980's. A great rule of thumb is 20-90 years old is vintage.”

     Barry’s sister, Lorraine West Hopkins, gave me TREASURED RECIPES from Members and Friends of the Victory Hills Church of the Nazarene for a shower gift in 1968 (it was published in 1967). For a while it was one of the few cookbooks I had so it received a lot of use. Now, it competes with a multitude of publications plus the Internet. Yet, each holiday season (since 1968) I go back to find the recipe for Pecan Snowballs.  They are one of Barry’s favorite cookies and a symbol of Christmas at our house.
     This recipe has been entered in the "White Christmas" Challenge.

  

Pecan Snowballs     Makes 40 to 44

1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened

¼ cup granulated sugar

2 teaspoons vanilla

¾ teaspoon salt

1 cup pecans, coarsely chopped

2 cups all-purpose flour

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Powdered sugar

1.  Preheat oven to 275°. I line cookie sheets with parchment or silicon liners.

2.  Cream butter, sugar and vanilla. Add salt, pecans and flour; mix until dough is cohesive.

The Beater Blade we purchased for our Kitchen Aid mixer does a great
job of mixing and scraping the sides and bottom of the mixing bowl.

3.  Form into balls the size of a walnut and place on an ungreased cookie sheet.

Ready for the oven.

4.  Bake at 275° for 30 minutes; increase heat to 375° and bake an additional 8 to 10 minutes – cookies should be light brown.

5.  Roll warm cookies in powdered sugar. Once they cookies are cool, I sprinkle with powdered sugar again.

Warm cookies go into a bowl of powdered sugar.

After cookies have cooled, I again sprinkle them with powdered sugar.