Snowball Cookies are my absolute favorite Christmas cookies! These buttery shortbread cookies will melt-in-your-mouth and always a favorite with everyone.
Snowball Cookies
I’m sure most of you have tried a snowball cookie of some sort in your life, but this recipe is extra special. These taste amazing and will melt in your mouth. Everyone always begs for this recipe. Some people refer to these cookies as Mexican wedding cookies, Russian tea cakes, Italian Wedding Cookies, Snowdrops and Butter Balls. However, we always call them snowball cookies because they look like little snowballs. It’s understandable where the “wedding” and “tea” labels come from because these cookies seem so dainty and fancy, along with a perfect match with a warm cup of tea. No matter what you call them, everyone loves these classic shortbread Christmas cookies!
If you’ve never tried these cookies before, these are a rich, buttery shortbread cookie that is combined with finely chopped walnuts and rolled in powdered sugar. Another awesome thing about these cookies is that they are so EASY to make only using 6 ingredients that most of us already have on hand.
How To Make Snowball Cookies
Ingredients you will need:
- butter
- sugar
- vanilla extract
- flour
- chopped walnuts, almonds, or pecans
- confectioners sugar
Start out by mixing the dough ingredients until combined. Then wrap and place in the fridge for 45 minutes. Roll scoops of dough into 1-inch balls.
Bake until lightly golden brown, but make sure to not over-bake. These cookies need to bake for about 12-14 minutes, just until they look set and the bottoms are lightly browned. You don’t want to under-bake these cookies, but you also don’t want to over-bake them. Make sure watch closely towards the end of baking.
Once you take the cookies out of the oven, let cool for 2 minutes. Then place the warm cookies on a cooling rack. Dust the warm cookies with powdered sugar. Let the cookies cool completely then dust again to make sure they are well coated.
Can Snowball Cookies be frozen?
Yes, for up to 2 months.
How to Store Snowball Cookies:
Place the cookies in an airtight container at room temperature for a few days and eat before the cookies will start to lose their fresh taste (trust me, you’ll gobble these up in a day – they are SO GOOD). If you want to keep them longer, freeze them.
These Snowball Christmas Cookies make wonderful Christmas gifts and a staple for Holiday cookie trays. They look so pretty and it’s a pretty much guarantee that everyone will love them!
Tips:
- You can even swap out the walnuts for something else like almonds, pecans, dried cranberries or even mini chocolate chips!
- Do not make the cookies too big, you only want about 1 tablespoon of dough per cookie. I like to use a 1 tablespoon measuring spoon to measure out the cookie dough.
- When measuring your flour, don’t scoop it out of the container with the measuring cup. Instead, spoon the flour into your measuring cup, and level it off with the back of a knife.
- Make sure that your cookies are the same size to make sure smaller cookies don’t over-bake and cookies that are too large under-bake.
Christmas Snowballs
You can add in Christmas M&M’s to the batter for a more Festive look. Plus, chocolate always makes everything better right?!
Other Christmas Cookies You Will Love:
White Chocolate Oatmeal Cranberry Cookies
The BEST Peanut Butter Blossoms
Christmas Chocolate Chip Cookies
Snowball Cookies that Melt-In-Your-Mouth
Ingredients
- 1 cup unsalted butter softened
- 5 Tbsp granulated sugar
- 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
- 1/4 teaspoon fine-grain sea salt
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 2 cups finely chopped walnuts, almonds or pecans
- 1 1/2 cups confectioners sugar
Instructions
- Using a handheld electric mixer (or stand mixer), cream together softened butter and granulated sugar until smooth. Beat in the vanilla and salt. Gradually add flour beating after each addition. Stir in the finely chopped nuts until blended. Divide dough in half and refrigerate in plastic food wrap for 45 minutes.
- While the dough is in the fridge, preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Line two baking sheets with a cookie mat or parchment paper and set aside.
- Remove the dough from the fridge and scoop 1-inch balls. Roll the balls with your hands to make them round.
- Place dough balls 1½ inches apart on prepared baking sheets. Bake in preheated oven until the cookies are just beginning to brown around the bottom edges, about 12 to 14 minutes. Do not overbake.
- Cool cookies on baking sheets on wire racks for a couple of minutes. Spoon the powdered sugar in a sifter and dust the cookies while they are still warm. Let the sugar-coated cookies cool completely, then dust once again with the confectioners’ sugar.
Last Step:
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29 comments on “Snowball Cookies (Melt-In-Your-Mouth)”
My Mom made these and I’ve been eating them since I was a little girl. They are still my favorite 70+ years later. Also my son’s favorite.
We love them too Carol! Thanks!
Do you powder them before freezing? Once defrosted, do you powder them again ?
Hi Nancy. You can powder before freezing and then touch up when defrosted if necessary.
Can I leave out the nuts and use more m&m’s? Grandson is allergic to nuts.
Hi Vicki. Yes, you can absolutely leave out the nuts and add more m & m’s.
These cookies are so delicious! Thank you for this recipe!
I made mine a little bit smaller so you can pop them in your mouth. Cookie came out just the way I remember them.
Great cookies! Of note, make sure to sift your flour and don’t over beat. Kids LOVED them and they were so simple.
How many cookies does it make?
Delicious cookies. I used ground walnuts.
They were a huge hit on Thanksgiving.
Is the dough supposed to be moist and sticky instead of firm?
So Yummy.. wish I could have put a few in the freezer to see how they handle the defrost .. but they didn’t last long enough to try …lol
All purpose are self rising flour
All-purpose flour.
Going to try this soon at a church outing. I’m sure they will be well liked. Thanks !!!
Love the idea to froze for up to 2 months the snowball cookies. Perfect for me and my 18 months baby boy.
Very good. I would recommend a tad more sugar. Delicious nonetheless.
yum yum, best cookie in the world. My mom always made me a batch for my birthday present, for many years. She is now in heaven and I lost her recipe so I am thrilled to get this.
May you now continue to treat yourself to these cookies on your birthday!
The best!
Love this recipe. But I had a recipe that you fried them Can you do this also. Please let me no.
Thank You.
Your recipe is awsome ! Thank you for share it!
My aunt gave me this recipe but her’s had been modified two ways. The first is to wrap the dough around the old fashioned Brach’s Chocolate Stars (Kisses are a bit too dense and heavy I find so always special order the stars). Bake exactly the same way. The second was she makes them for other seasons not just Christmas because everyone loves them. She makes each season unique and special by adding the large colored sugar crystals for the holiday season. Red and green for Christmas, Pink, light yellow, lavender and light blue for Easter etc. get added lightly to the powdered sugar which she rolls the cookies in. The basic cookie recipe is identical to yours except with the chocolate addition. What our family also does once the cookies are completely cooled (like the next day if any make it that long) is to put on folded paper towel and microwave for about 15-20 seconds. MMM! warm melted chocolate and soft cookie.
I’ve used virtually the same recipe for 45 years. The only difference is that I only use 1/4 cup of sugar and 1 1/2 cups of chopped nuts. I find if I use more nuts than that, it’s hard to get in rolled into a ball.
My brother in law love these, he lived in San Diego,
I recall whenever he flew back to his childhood town
In Maryland he loaded up on them.
Agree on amount of nuts!! I could literally eat the whole batch!