This vegan and gluten-free take on Mexican wedding cookies may have you questioning if they might just be the real deal. Studded with pecans, these cookies are deliciously buttery, crispy, perfectly sweet, and SO classic.
They’re made in 1 bowl with 7 ingredients and no chill time. It doesn’t get any easier than that. Let’s bake!
What are Mexican Wedding Cookies?
With a name like Mexican wedding cookies, you might think these powdered sugar-coated, buttery, nutty cookies are served at weddings in Mexico. Not so fast!
Instead, how they got their name and where they came from is a bit of a mystery! Similar cookies go by the names Russian tea cakes, Mexican wedding cakes, Swedish tea cookies, and more. They’re also similar to an ancient Arab cookie and a buttery Greek cookie.
One thing is certain: Variations of these delicious cookies are embraced around the world. The following is our vegan and gluten-free take!
How to Make Vegan Gluten-Free Mexican Wedding Cookies
First things first: These perfectly buttery cookies need butter! Softened vegan butter, to be exact. After whipping the butter on its own, powdered sugar gets added for sweetness and a smooth, fluffy cookie dough. Also, vanilla extract because you gotta!
Next come the dry ingredients: Our 1:1 Gluten-Free Flour Blend works its magic along with almond flour for a neutral, sweet, and balanced cookie with the perfect crumb. It’s pretty heavenly!
Chopped pecans are really the je ne sais quoi of Mexican wedding cookies. They bring magical texture and the classic wedding cookie taste, but if you don’t like them or can’t have them, you can sub hazelnuts, almonds, or walnuts!
Chilling? Never heard of her. We roll these babies right up and bake! No time to waste!
After baking, we roll the cookies in powdered sugar while still warm to create a sticky base for the second and final dusting of powdered sugar to stick. Then they’re ready for enjoying!
We hope you LOVE these Mexican wedding cookies. They’re:
Crispy
Buttery
Perfectly sweet
Tender
Nutty
& Undetectably vegan & gluten-free!
Whip these cookies up for weddings, holiday parties, Easter celebrations, and beyond! Pair them with a glass of dairy-free milk or Easy Vegan Eggnog, and you’ll be living your best life.
More Easy Holiday Treats
- 5-Ingredient Almond Butter Dark Chocolate Snowballs
- Vegan Gluten-Free Banana Pecan Shortbread (Butter-Free)
- 3-Ingredient Chocolate Fudge (Dairy-Free)
If you try this recipe, let us know! Leave a comment, rate it, and don’t forget to tag a photo @minimalistbaker on Instagram. Cheers, friends!
Vegan Gluten-Free Mexican Wedding Cookies
Ingredients
COOKIES
- 1/2 cup softened vegan butter (we like Miyoko’s)
- 1/3 cup powdered sugar (ensure organic for vegan-friendly)
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 3/4 cup MB 1:1 Gluten-Free Flour Blend*
- 3/4 cup almond flour (we like Wellbee’s)
- 1/4 tsp sea salt
- 2/3 cup chopped pecans*
FOR ROLLING
- 1/3 cup powdered sugar (ensure organic for vegan-friendly)
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 400 degrees F (204 C) and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
- To a medium bowl add softened vegan butter and powdered sugar. Use a handheld or stand mixer to beat the mixture on high until it’s light and fluffy. Add vanilla and beat again.
- Add gluten free flour, almond flour, and salt. Mix on low until just combined. Add the chopped pecans and give it one final stir.
- Scoop out tablespoon-sized pieces of dough and roll into little balls. Place them about an inch apart on the baking sheet.
- Bake for 9-11 minutes until the tops are just starting to turn golden. Fill a small bowl with powdered sugar and set aside. Let the cookies cool on your baking sheet for 3-5 minutes before generously rolling in the powdered sugar. Once the cookies are completely cool, roll them in the powdered sugar again and enjoy!
- Delicious with dairy-free milk or a cold glass of eggnog! Store leftovers in an airtight container at room temperature for 3-5 days. If making ahead of time, you can store the pre-portioned raw cookie dough in the freezer and leave in the oven for a minute or two longer if baking from frozen.
Video
Notes
*If you don’t like or can’t have pecans, you can substitute hazelnuts, almonds, or walnuts.
*Nutrition information is a rough estimate.
*Loosely adapted from Food.com.
Sydney says
These are so easy and they taste amazing! I should’ve made my own gluten free flour blend, but I cheated and bought one. Will make my own next time, but still these are perfection! :)
We’re so glad you enjoyed them, Sydney! Thank you for sharing! xo
Carol Kast says
I’ve made and loved traditional Hannukah nut horns (same recipe, different shape than Mexican wedding cookies) for 30+ years, but this year made this recipe for my gluten free vegan daughter. They are SO much better! I think it’s the almond flour that makes the difference – it gives the cookies more body. Even when using non GF ingredients, I will add the almond flour from here on. Thank you!
Amazing! We’re so glad you loved this recipe, Carol. Thank you for sharing your experience! xo
Nicole says
These are delicious! Taking them to a NYE gathering tonight and they were so quick and easy. I followed the recipe exactly and they turned out perfectly. I will keep these in my rotation for holiday cookies, for sure! So flavorful! Thank you!
We’re so glad you enjoyed them, Nicole! Thanks for sharing. xo
D. K. says
Made these with Bob’s Red Mill 1 to 1, could only find salted pecans, so didn’t add the extra salt. Excellent! Thank you.
We’re so glad they turned out well. Thank you for sharing! xo
kerrie says
Okay, I LOVED these — and they got rave reviews from a handful of taste testers. So, I will definitely be making them again, but with some small tweaks.
In case it’s helpful, I made 18 at the recommended size. And I used Miyokos Oat Milk butter, Bob’s Red Mill 1:1 GF flour, and Whole Foods 365 ingredients for everything else; subbed in sliced almonds instead of pecans.
My small tweaks:
1. I’m not going to use a hand mixer for the step of adding in the almond, 1:1 flour, and salt (step 3). I think this beat up the dough too much. Especially since making them into the right shape and size took some light hand-work, and the cookies that ended up having more shaping seemed to fall apart more quickly in the post-bake steps.
2. Top rack bake only. My top rack tray turned out golden with the recommended timing (9 min); my middle rack tray turned out burnt (same timing).
3. When I finally run out of my current 1:1, I’ll give these a go with the MB 1:1!
Thank you for this one, y’all! Truly, so good.
Whoop! We’re so glad they were a hit, Kerrie. Thank you for the lovely review and for sharing your tips! xo
Susan Aitchison says
Hi again, I am wondering if you think oats blended down to flour would work? I do not normally bake gluten-free but am going to a house party where at least one person is and I’d like to take something to share with everyone. I’m not sure if oats are totally gluten-free? I am unable to go shopping again before this gathering so do you have any suggestions other than oats that could be used from an ordinary pantry? I was wondering about using extra almond flour? I usually blend almonds into flour rather than buy it in flour form.
Hi Susan, we can’t guarantee success with other GF flours because they all behave so differently! Oat flour is more dense and we wouldn’t recommend it in this recipe. More almond flour will make them too crumbly. The only other idea we’d have would be you could maybe make brown rice flour from brown rice and maybe do a combo of brown rice flour + cornstarch (heavier on the brown rice flour than the cornstarch)? But again, we can’t guarantee success as we haven’t tested it that way!
Kim says
I’m so sad! These did not work out for me. They burnt so badly and quickly too. I took them out at 8 min. To try and salvage them I cut the tops off and they looked fine. But when I tried to roll them after they cooled the 3-5 min they fell apart in the powdered sugar. We fished out what we could, that hadn’t disintegrated, and are them. They were delicious though! I have made a lot of you recipes from sweet to savory and this is the first one you not work out.
We’re so sorry this one didn’t work out for you, Kim! Did you make any modifications? We’re not sure what would cause them to burn so quickly, unless maybe the oven was on convection and/or the cookie sheet was very close to the heating element?
Kimberly Ramm says
I didn’t change anything. I made the gingerbread cutout cookies after this and they turned out just fine and tasted amazing.
We’re glad the gingerbread cookies were a success. We’re a little stumped on this one! Sorry they didn’t turn out.
Marie says
These are absolutely perfect. So much bang for your buck considering how quick and easy these are to make. A new favorite!!
We’re so glad you enjoyed them, Marie! Thank you for the lovely review! xo
Susan Aitchison says
Thank you for this recipe. Lost mine years ago in a move and until now did not find one comparable. Used all purpose white flour in same quantity as GF. Ground my almonds into flour and used that, along with ground (mealish) walnuts instead of pecan. My husband loved them.
We’re so glad you found this recipe and enjoyed it, Susan. Thank you for sharing! xo
Roz says
These are much better than store bought. Husband said they were perfect!
Yay! We’re so glad you both enjoyed them, Roz. Thank you for sharing! xo
Lisa says
DELICIOUS!!
I made these for my co-workers and they LOVED them. Easy to make and extremely tasty.
Whoop! Thanks so much for the lovely review, Lisa! xo
Melinda says
Love the texture and feel of these cookies!! I used Cup 4 Cup gf flour and Miyokos butter. They baked perfectly!! Brings me back to my wedding day. I am of Mexican descent and it is customary to have a plate of Mexican Wedding Cookies (Polvorones) at each guest’s table. Yum!!
We’re so glad you enjoyed the cookies, Melinda. And oh how fun!! Love that wedding tradition! Thank you sharing! xo
kristie says
i’ve double-batched this recipe twice… best snowballs on the west coast! 🌊
Love it! We’re so glad you’re enjoying them, Kristie. Thank you for sharing! xo
Janeen says
The bottoms burnt at 10 minutes, only made 11 cookies
Hi Janeen, sorry to hear your cookies burnt, did you happen to make any modifications to the recipe? If you used 1 Tbsp to measure the cookies, it should make 18!
Mary Forrestall says
I made these wedding tea cakes using the MB GF flout blend and they turned out amazing!! Followed recipe exactly, including not chilling the dough before baking. Oh my goodness…so yummy!!! My favorite cookie growing up and I can enjoy vegan and GF!
I love all three products! The waffles; chocolate cake and now using the flour blend. Thank you MB for these products. I’m a huge fan of them :)
We’re so glad you enjoyed them, Mary. Thank you so much for your kind words and support! xo
Sheri says
Mine melted into puddles while baking. Maybe it would be better to chill first like I’ve done with other GF cookies that need to hold their shape. Delicious, just not gift worthy. I did use Bob’s 1-1 baking blend, so maybe that was the problem.
Sorry to hear that, Sheri! Did you use more of the Bob’s blend? It’s not as absorbent as our blend, which could cause the cookies to spread. Otherwise, if the dough sat out a long time before baking, perhaps that could contribute and chilling would help, but we suspect the flour is the issue.
Bakingbiking Mom says
So yummy!! They turned out perfect! Thank you!
Thanks so much for the lovely review. We are so glad you enjoyed them! Next time, would you mind leaving a star rating with your review? It’s super helpful for us and other readers. Thanks so much! xo
Bakingbiking mom says
I’m sorry that my star rating didn’t show up! I wish I could change but can’t. It’s a positive ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️
Thanks so much for the updated review! xoxo
Karen says
Will this recipe work with regular white flour instead of the gluten free blend?
Hi Karen! We haven’t tried it, but it should work well!
Adelle says
Your flour blend isn’t available in Canada. Would a 1 to 1 blend work in this recipe?
Hi Adelle! You could substitute another gluten-free flour blend (such as our DIY blend) for the Minimalist Baker GF Flour Blend, but we haven’t tested it and can’t guarantee the result. You may need to use more of it for a similar texture (reference the photos). Let us know if you try it out!
Felicia says
IF I wish to just use regular flour instead of gluten free for any of your recipes, is there a formula for that substitution or do I just replace the gluten free flour with white flour? Right now I want to make the Mexican
wedding cookies for Christmas.
I love your recipes but we don’t eat gluten free so I try to adapt. I already am on your email list.
Thank you so much for your help.
Felicia
Hi Felicia! For most recipes using our new Minimalist Baker Gluten-Free Flour Blend you can substitute the gluten-free flour for all-purpose flour! Thank you for your support. xo
Blake Spencer says
Do you think I could substitute sunflower oil for the butter? I tried it in a vegan chocolate chip cookie recipe and it yielded a melt in your mouth result. Maybe I will try it and let you know!
Yum! We haven’t tried any other oils in this recipe, but if you try it let us know how it goes!
MS says
Yum Blake, I have been looking for an amazing gf and vegan chocolate chip cookie recipe with no luck :( do you mind sharing your recipe? All I have made are not the best. Thank you!!!
We have a recipe for vegan, gluten-free chocolate chip cookies here!
Lyn says
These look great. Can you use regular all purpose flour in place of the gluten free?
Hi Lyn! We haven’t tried all-purpose flour in this recipe, but we think it should work! Let us know if you try it. xo
Debi Griffith says
Can I make these with all purpose flour?
Hi Debi, we haven’t tried these with all-purpose flour, but we think it could work in place of the gluten-free flour!
Danielle says
Can I use coconut oil instead of vegan butter?
Hi Danielle! Coconut oil might work here, it could make the cookies more prone to crumbling though. However, we haven’t tried these ones with coconut oil and can’t guarantee results! Let us know if you try it!
Mar says
In Mexico they’re usually known as nutty kisses (besos de nuez). First time I hear they’re called wedding cookies.
Thanks for sharing, Mar!
Edith says
They are good, but I was going to say there is no such thing as Mexican wedding cookies…
Kristy says
Adding a bit of almond flavoring to these is delicious!
Lovely! Thanks so much for sharing, Kristy!
Georgina Ramson says
I want to try so many of the recipes you post, and have purchased your cookbook which I really enjoy.
Just one problem….I have been tested and have no issue with gluten. So I have to hope that I can just sub my regular flours for the gluten free ones in the recipes.
Unless one has gluten sensitivity it is not healthy to go gluten free as grains have that protein for a reason and it can be very nutritious for the population that can eat it.
So, having said all this, I intend to sub regular whole grain flours for the gluten free. I would be happy to report results to you if you would like that.
Thanks for the wonderful recipes and your super cookbook! It has been a huge help in guiding me to a Vegan lifestyle.
Hi Georgina! We think all-purpose flour would work in this recipe! Let us know if you try it. xo
Lee says
I know these cookies are classic almond cookies but I’m allergic to almonds! Any sub for me?
Hi Lee! You could try substituting cashew flour for the almond flour!
Nancy Greenwalt says
What can I use instead of powder sugar?
Hi Nancy, powdered sugar is pretty important for these to have the right texture!
Elizabeth says
We have made something very similar to these at Christmas every year in our house. We call them Pecan Puffs, recipe from The Joy of Cooking. To make them festive, we split the batter, dying one half red and the other green.
Cute!