These festive holiday Snowball Cookies are made with finely chopped walnuts, flour, and vanilla, then rolled into balls and dusted with powdered sugar. They freeze well and ship well, too!
Can you say addictive? Get into the holiday spirit with Hank and his snowball cookies! ~Elise
This was my all-time favorite Christmas cookie when I was growing up. Mum made them by the bushel, and we’d pop the walnut-sized balls into our mouths as fast as she made them.
So fast that I got caught once as a boy purloining several. When I proclaimed my innocence, mum noted the powdered sugar on my face. Busted.
Best Kind of Nut to Use for Snowball Cookies?
We always made these cookies with walnuts, but pecans are also customary. While we always called these “nut balls,” I’ve seen similar cookies called Mexican wedding cookies and Russian tea cakes. No matter what you call them, these cookies are addictive.
Consider this a starter recipe, suitable for a small family. If you have a crowd, double it.
How to Freeze Snowball Cookies
These cookies do keep well in the freezer, either baked or unbaked, for at least a month. If unbaked, no need to thaw; just add an extra minute or two onto the baking time. If baked, go ahead and roll them in the first round of powdered sugar, freeze, and then roll again in powdered sugar after thawing.
Looking for more Christmas cookies? Try these!
Want to see ALL of our Christmas Cookies? Check this out!
Walnut Snowball Cookies Recipe
- Prep time: 10 minutes
- Cook time: 35 minutes
- Yield: Makes about 20 cookies
You can make these cookies with wild black walnuts, pecans, hazelnuts, hickory or butternuts — all will work fine.
We usually use unsalted butter to make this recipe. If you use salted butter, omit the pinch of salt.
Ingredients
- 1 cup all-purpose or cake flour
- 1 1/2 cups walnuts, finely chopped
- 2 to 3 Tbsp sugar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 8 tablespoons (4 ounces) unsalted butter, at room temperature
- Pinch of salt
- Powdered sugar, to coat (about 1 cup)
Method
1 Make the cookie dough: Mix all the dry ingredients (flour, walnuts, salt, sugar) in a large bowl. Add the vanilla extract. Add the butter in little pieces, and combine everything together with your (clean!) hands until the mixture looks like a coarse meal with nut bits in it.
2 Chill the dough: Chill the dough for at least 30 minutes in the fridge or up to overnight.
3 Preheat the oven to 300°F. Line a baking sheet with parchment or silicon baking mats.
4 Form the dough into balls: Form the dough into small balls no larger than a walnut and place on the cookie sheet, spaced at least an inch apart from each other.
3 Bake for 35 minutes.
4 Roll in powdered sugar: When they are still warm, but cool enough to touch, roll the cookies in some powdered sugar. Set aside on a rack to cool completely. When cool, dust again in powdered sugar.
Links:
Mexican Wedding Cookies by Irvin Lin, here on Simply Recipes
Black Walnut Snowballs with Orange Flower Water – from Hunter Angler Gardener Cook
