Snowballs for January

So then next recipe I had decided to make was Mexican Wedding cookies from a recipe in Krystina Castella's recipe book called Crazy About Cookies. I thought the cookies resembled  snowballs to that's the title. These cookies are very simple and a good break from the frustrating ice cream sandwiches I made in my last blog (Go check it out). Krystina said the cookies are served at weddings in Mexico and the southeastern United States. They are very similar to Russian tea cakes. (Castella 169)

Recipe:
" 2 cups all-purpose Flour
  1/4 tsp. salt
  1 cup Butter, softened
  1 cup of powdered sugar
  1 cup ground pecans
  1 tsp. Vanilla " ( Castella 169)

So this was a basic recipe for me. It was different to what I had done before but simple, as you can see there is only 6 ingredients. The recipe called for a lot of butter, but all the butter I had was in the freezer. So I cut each stick in 6 chunks and microwaved the chucks at power level 2 for 10 minutes. It did nothing practically to them. I then put it in for 2 minutes at level 4 and then some of it melted. This part could be part of the difficulties to have when making these.

After baking the cookies she says to roll the cookies in powdered sugar while they are still warm.

What I learned from the recipe is to prepare for a recipe before like get out the butter to thaw, so I don't accidentally melt a third of it. I also learned that powdered sugar is extremely clingy so wear aprons people.

My question for you is:
How do you thaw frozen butter without accidentally melting it?

Comment Below!

Citation:
Castella, Krystina. Crazy about Cookies: 300 Scrumptious Recipes for Every Occasion & Craving. New York: Sterling, 2010. Print.