There are the obvious hand-me-down recipes, sushi, real gohan, pork and shrimp gyoza, gomae, and a special pseudo-Japanese deep-fried creation kati-kati.  But there were also some surprise contenders, hidden away in the Nana arsenal.  Cornbread baked in little baths of bacon fat.  Deviled Crab, fresh lump-meat crab baked in half-shells.  Chocolate cake.  Chocolate-chip meringues.  Peroshkis, Russian bread balls stuffed with onions, meat, and noodles.  And the infamous, many-named pecan balls.  Every so often, if we were lucky—or mostly likely just being a grandchild would get us these—cartons of small, sugar encrusted pecan balls, the crunchiest, most golden and nutty cookies with an unreal golden caramel flavor would be ours.

I finally got Nana to show me, because of course there really was no recipe.  These are a sort of shortbread, wedding cookie, Kouridades, combo.  Pecan studded cookies dredged in powdered sugar.  I sat at her kitchen table and showed her the dough at many stages, with this much flour, this much sugar, a little more flour, a little more butter.  And then of course, the cooking time.  Two hours?  Three hours?  Four hours?  225 degrees?  250 degrees?  As with all grandmothers, Nana didn’t really know.  The cookies just come out right, every time.  So, although it’s taken me a couple tries to translate the know-how into an actual recipe, here they are.  Pecan balls, or as friends with a high, high level of humor named them, Crack Balls.

They are addictive.

Pecan Balls

From Nana

Makes about 50

1 cup (2 sticks) salted butter, room temperature

6 tablespoons powdered sugar, plus about 2 cups more for powdering

2 ½ cups whole pecans, lightly toasted and then chopped to small bits

2 ¼ cups flour

1.  Cream together butter and sugar.  Add pecans and mix until combined.  Dust butter mixture with flour, and then stir until just combined.  Continue mixing with hands until one large dough ball is formed.  Taking rounded teaspoons, form dough spheres by rolling balls between palms.  Place on baking sheet and refrigerate overnight, or for at least twelve hours.

2.  Preheat oven to 250 degrees.  Bake pecan balls for 3 hours, rotating balls every hour.  Balls should be lightly golden on the outside, and dark golden on the inside.  Let balls cool completely then either roll in two cups powdered sugar, toss with 2 cups powdered sugar, or dip in tempered chocolate.  As the awful, lazy grandchild, I toss all the cookies at the same time in a large bowl with all the powdered sugar.  Nana takes the time to roll each separate cookie in the sugar, twice, which I sure departs a little something extra.