Pumpkin Polvorones (Mexican Wedding Cookies)
Polvorones are also known as Mexican wedding cookies—this pumpkin-flavored twist on the classic recipe is the perfect treat for fall.
Updated by Kathryne Taylor on September 26, 2024
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These pumpkin spice cookies are good. Really good. They are powdered sugar-dusted nuggets of goodness with tender, golden insides. I adapted them from a very basic recipe for polvorones, which I have always known as Mexican wedding cookies, a simple, not-too-sweet shortbread-like cookie made with nuts and no leavener.
Polvorones usually call for a good amount of butter, but I cut the butter in half in order to incorporate pumpkin purée. I also swapped in coconut oil for the remaining butter (since I like the taste and coconut goes well with pumpkin) and ended up with vegan cookies. The cookies are a little less crumbly than their all-butter counterparts, but I loved them nonetheless. Don’t have coconut oil? Go for butter instead. Either way, definitely make these cookies.
Pumpkin Polvorones (Mexican Wedding Cookies)
Polvorones are also known as Mexican wedding cookies—this pumpkin-flavored twist on the classic recipe is the perfect treat for fall. These tender and nutty whole wheat pumpkin pecan cookies are so simple to make. They’re vegan if you use coconut oil instead of butter, but if you are a butter lover or if that is all you have on hand, go with the butter. Little hands might like to help roll the dough into balls. I daresay these cookies might be better on day two. Recipe yields 18 to 24 cookies.
Ingredients
- ½ cup room-temperature coconut oil or unsalted butter
- ½ cup pumpkin purée
- ½ cup cane sugar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon ground ginger
- ¼ teaspoon ground allspice
- ½ teaspoon fine salt
- 1 slightly heaping cup raw pecans
- 2 cups whole wheat pastry flour or regular whole wheat flour
- ½ cup powdered sugar
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper.
- Lightly toast the pecans in a skillet over medium-low heat, stirring frequently, under they are nice and fragrant. Remove from heat. You can either use a food processor to finely chop the pecans (about 10 pulses should do it, don’t blend so well that you end up with pecan butter) or finely chop the pecans with a chef’s knife on a cutting board (let the pecans cool until they’re comfortable to touch before chopping).
- In a large bowl, beat the coconut oil or butter, pumpkin purée, sugar, vanilla, cinnamon, ginger, allspice and salt with an electric mixer on medium speed until light and fluffy. Gradually add the chopped pecans and flour, beating on low speed after each addition until well blended.
- Using a 1-tablespoon cookie scoop or your hands, shape the dough into 1-inch balls (if using a scoop, roll each ball between your palms to smooth out the edges). Place the cookies on the baking sheet, leaving about 1 ½-inch space around each cookie (the cookies will not expand in size).
- Bake for 14 to 15 minutes, until the bottoms of cookies are lightly browned. Let the cookies cool for 5 minutes on the baking sheet. Pour the powdered sugar into a small bowl and roll the warm cookies liberally to coat in powdered sugar. Taste, and if the cookies aren’t quite sweet enough to delight, roll them again in powdered sugar. Let the cookies cool on a wire rack.
Notes
Recipe adapted from Kraft’s recipe for Mexican wedding cookies.
Make it vegan: Be sure to use the coconut oil instead of regular butter.
Nutrition
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Would you still use 1/2 c of coconut oil if solid and has anyone used anything besides
a spelt flour. I can’t do whole wheat. Thanks.
Yes, use the same amount of oil either way. I’ve heard that these are good when make with gluten-free flour blends. I have wondered if oat flour might be good, too, since these cookies don’t rise like most.
I made these gluten free with a mixture of a gf blend they were fantastic!
I’m glad they turned out well with gf flour. I thought they might be a good candidate for that since the cookies don’t really rise or fluff up. Thanks for letting me know, Karen!
I made these and wrote about them here.
I had such high hopes for these cookies. Ultimately, they are not the buttery shortbread delights that are the classic Russian Tea Cakes. I kept popping them into my mouth expecting the original version and being disappointed every time, just because they look exactly like Russian tea cakes!
I do plan on making these again, but leaving them as raw cookie dough bites. I liked the dough better uncooked and that way they won’t look a thing like the traditional Russian tea cakes.
thank you for sharing this recipe!
I made these because I grew up eating these around the holidays…every…single…year and my father NEVER changed the recipe! So I was so excited to see a play on the original…AND THEY WERE AMAZING! I’m bringing them home to suprise my dad next week, thanks for the recipe!
Thank you, Lindsey! I’m really happy that you enjoyed my spin on your family’s favorite cookies. Hope your dad loved them, too.
These look incredible- great idea! Love the combination of Tex-Mex and Thanksgiving flavors in one little dessert. Will be trying them out when it turns winter here in Australia.
I had a leftover farmers market pumpkin and a sweet tooth and googled recipes on a whim – I’m so lucky I found these! I made a batch for my roommates and we loved them! I wi have to double or triple the recipe if I want any to try the second day :)
These are great! If you coat them with powdered sugar hot, then do a second coat when cooled it sticks better and becomes opaque and pretty!
Thanks, Traci! Thank you for sharing your tip, too!
I was just wondering Kate, do you think I could make the dough ahead of time and freeze it? Then thaw, bake, and roll? I’m planning on making them for a party and wanted to do some of the work ahead of time. Can you let me know what you think?
Hey Liesl, I haven’t tried doing that, but I think that would work well! These cookies don’t contain any leavener so I don’t think you have anything to worry about. I would freeze the dough in cookie balls so they’re easy to thaw and bake. Please let me know if you give this a try!
These look amazing, and I love pumpkin and all spice! But I’m sad – if a pretty, talented and smart lady like yourself is alone, then there’s no hope for me:(
Autumn makes me sad, the cold weather, not having anyone to cuddle with (even the dogs get sick of me). That’s why I named my daughter Autumn even though she was born in the Spring – it helped me get through those tough fall days when I was pregnant knowing that soon I’d have a little Princess. I think of fall the same as you, and ending to life, but actually, now I think of it as a dormant time, a time where everything is renewing itself to burst forth in spring!
Bonnie, there is hope! Don’t give up. I like thinking of fall/winter as a dormant time. That’s a much more tolerable idea.
Would these work with maple syrup, honey, or molasses instead of cane sugar?
Possibly, but I’m not sure how the extra moisture would effect the final texture. Do you use coconut sugar? It’s a natural sweetener that might work great here. I’d still recommend rolling in powdered sugar if you’re going for a wedding cookie effect.
HI, Kate! What do you think would be good substitutes for the cane sugar and powdered sugar? My daughter wants to make some decadent sugar-free fall cookies.
Hi Kimberly, I’m sorry for the delayed response! That is a bit of a conundrum, because sugar makes cookies sweet and tender. Coconut sugar is a more natural, less refined sugar, and it may work instead of the cane sugar. I don’t have any substitutes for the powdered sugar, except maybe a drizzle of honey—but I’m not sure if either of these qualify for your version of sugar-free.
These cookies are dangerously good! I made them using a vegan butter flavored stick and half brown and half bakers sugar. They are so easy and taste amazing. Thanks for this recipe!
Thanks for sharing, Peggy! I’m glad you loved them.
Can I use Almond flour instead? And do you think I could use the same measurement you used?
Unfortunately, almond flour isn’t a 1:1 substitute typically.
Hi,
Is Swans Down enriched cake flour (bleached) the same as pastry flour?
I could no find this.
They are different, https://www.bobsredmill.com/whole-wheat-pastry-flour
I just finished making these, and WOW! I absolutely love the nuttiness of the whole wheat flour and pecans, but it’s not overwhelming – they’re still just the right sweetness. I used Earth Balance vegan butter sticks, and while the initial wet mixture never quite looked fully blended and definitely not creamy or fluffy, they still turned out perfect. There was enough dough to make 20 larger cookies (probably closer to 1.5″, but I didn’t measure them), so I baked them for just slightly longer at 16 minutes. Perfectly firm on the outside and deliciously soft on the inside. Wonderful recipe altogether – thank you!
These were amazing!! I live in Pittsburgh, and the wedding tradition of the Pittsburgh Cookie Table is about the best thing ever. I made them for a Halloween wedding, and everyone loved them. I didn’t have time to bake the whole lot the first time (I had accidentally tripled the recipe instead of doubling it!), so I rolled the extra dough into balls and froze them. I later thawed them and baked them as usual, and they came out great! I may have to keep some of these in the freezer for last-minute cookie emergencies!
Making today! Can I swap AP flour for whole wheat? How about semolina?
Hi! All purpose flour may work, although I haven’t tried it. Let me know!
Very late on this recipe but made them for Thanksgiving and they were a hit! Would you recommend any other variations? Thinking of making more for the holidays but not too sure if I’m set on using pumpkin again.
Hi! I’m glad you loved it. I’m not sure about other variations without trying it since baking is so precise.
I just made these and they are delicious. The toasted pecan flavor is lovely; I’m not sure much pumpkin flavor comes through. I would say they are a little more crumbly than the traditional all-butter version. I think the yield in the recipe is off- I followed the recipe precisely, and got 60 cookies using 1-inch balls of dough that were done at 14 minutes.
I have loved every recipe I’ve made from this great blog. I guess there eventually had to be one I didn’t like! The problem here may be that I was expecting the buttery-ahortbread-melt-in-your-mouth feel of Mexican Wedding Cookies, and I found this pumpkin version very cakey. The delicate pumpkin and pumpkin spice flavor was nice, but the texture was not pleasing.
I think it was unrealistic of me to expect them to be buttery melt in the mouth made with whole wheat flour and the addition of pumpkin.
Hi Tiina, I’m sorry you didn’t love these. I appreciate your feedback.
Really lovely as always Kate! I made these in anticipation of wanting to snack tomorrow as I am cooking (the day before Thanksgiving) and am currently enjoying one with a cup of coffee – delish!
I did the coconut oil version and actually just mixed by hand as my mixer was out of commission – and it worked great! Used a whisk for the first mixing and then switched to a rubber spatula when gradually adding the pecans and flour. Thank you for another great recipe!
I made these once and was going on vacation so I popped them in the freezer. When I got back I’d get 2-3 out at a time and nuke them for a few secs. Ever since then these are a MUST to keep in my freezer! They are so good that way. I crave then when I don’t have them. They’re such a great little healthy/sweet snack!
Hooray! Thank you for sharing, Amy. I know others will find that helpful. Might need to do that mysef!
Love it! It’s sooo good! Thank you for another amazing recipe <3
Do these cookies freeze well?
Hi Nancy, they should. Let me know if you try them and what you think!
Can you make these with walnuts or no nuts?
Sure, you can try that. Let me know how it turns out for you!
The flavor is perfect! These were a hit with the family even if they came out a little too soft and didn’t hold the round shape during my first try making them. I googled around and maybe the dough was too warm? I’ll try putting the dough in the fridge next time for a bit to see if they come not as soft and keep their round shape.
Have you ever tried incorporating savory flavors into these traditional sweet cookies, such as adding rosemary or chili powder for a unique twist?