High altitudes make cookies spread in the pan, cakes fall, and few baked goods turn out as they do at sea level. This twice-monthly column presents recipes and tips that make baking in the mountains successful. 

Butterballs, snowballs, pecan balls, Mexican wedding cookies — whatever you call them, these cookies are a classic. Every cookie cookbook I’ve seen has a rendition of them, each one is good and easy to prepare. The tender, sandy texture is always the same, but the taste can vary depending on the other ingredients that are added. This version features a combination of hazelnuts (or pecans, your choice) with cocoa and espresso powders, making a less sweet, more sophisticated, adult variation. It is a welcome addition to a cookie tray, elevates a cup of coffee, creamy desserts or any fresh fruit.

Why do I recommend the use of superfine sugar in most of my recipes? Because it dissolves and/or melts much faster than regular granulated sugar, so it blends into batters, doughs, sauces, creams, etc. more quickly and smoothly. I find it makes a noticeable difference, particularly when baking at high altitudes. 

Mocha butterballs 

Yields 1 dozen 2-inch cookies. Make on a shiny metal cookie sheet. Works at any elevation.

• 1 cup finely chopped hazelnuts or pecans or hazelnut or pecan flour
• 3/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons bleached all-purpose flour, spoon and level
• 1/4 cup granulated sugar, preferably superfine
• 2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder, preferably special dark
• 1 teaspoon espresso powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 8 tablespoons unsalted butter (one stick)
• 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract or paste
• Confectioners’ sugar, for coating

Make the dough: Food Processor Method: Put the nuts, flour, sugar, cocoa powder, espresso powder, and salt in the bowl and process until well combined. Add the butter in 16 pieces and the vanilla, then pulse until the dough comes together in large, moist clumps, don’t let it form a ball. Traditional Method: Add the nuts, flour, cocoa powder, espresso powder, and salt to a small bowl, whisk to blend well, and set aside. Using an electric mixer, beat together the butter and sugar until it is creamy and light in color. Add the vanilla and mix until well combined. By hand, stir in the nut mixture, with a wooden spoon or silicone spatula, a quarter cup at a time, until the dough comes together.

Form and chill the cookies: If the dough is too soft or sticky to work with, chill it until it firms up enough to handle. Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper. Roll the dough into balls 1 1/2-inches in diameter and place them on the lined cookie sheet, spacing them about two inches apart. Refrigerate/freeze the balls, on the cookie sheet, until the balls are quite firm to the touch. This will prevent them from spreading. Preheat the oven to 325 degrees with a rack in the center position.

Bake and cool: Move the cookie sheet to the oven and bake until the cookies are set and have spread a little. The bottoms should be lightly colored, firm and fully cooked (check one cookie). Start checking at 15 minutes though the time will depend on how cold they were when placed in the oven. Remove from the oven, wait about 2-3 minutes, and carefully slide each cookie onto a cooling rack.

Coat cookies in sugar: When completely cool, put confectioners’ sugar in small bowl and roll each cookie in it until well coated.

Store and serve: Store the butterballs between sheets of waxed paper in a plastic container at room temperature for 3 days or freeze them for a month. If you don’t serve them immediately, they benefit from another coating of powdered sugar before being presented.

Vera Dawson’s column “High Country Baking” publishes biweekly in the Summit Daily News. Dawson is a high-elevation baking instructor and author of three high-altitude cookbooks. Her recipes have been tested in her kitchen in Frisco, where she’s lived since 1991, and altered until they work at elevation. Contact her at veradawson1@gmail.com.