This cookie has a “melt in your mouth” texture but also has a crunch from chopped pecans. For me, they are the best cookie around for Christmas.
What is your favorite Christmas cookie? Does it have deep roots and meanings and memories? Or it is just something that you now love. For me, it is my mom’s Snowball Cookies.
This easy recipe mom would make every year. She loved them as much as I do and now I have passed that love onto our daughter as it is her favorite cookie too. For another fun cookie for the holidays try our Candy Cane Cookie too! Our most popular is the Best Ever Fruitcake Cookie which honestly everyone loves.
Make Ahead & Freezing Instructions: Baked cookies freeze well up to 3 months. Thaw in the refrigerator or at room temperature.
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I do a double dip on the powdered sugar so that they are nice and white and really look like a snowball.
For this process I have ready a wire rack with wax paper underneath for easy clean up. I let them cool on the baking sheet but only for 5 minutes and then roll them in powdered sugar and place them back on the wire rack.
They then have to be cooled completely and dipped a second time in the sugar. Otherwise they aren’t very sweet and the cookie shows through. This way they get a lovely even coating.
How to Make Snowball Cookies
How to make snowball cookies? They are pretty easy to make. Besides the trick with double rolling them in the sugar is that you have to chill the dough.
So give some forethought to making these. They need to be in the fridge for 30 minutes to one hour.
If left longer the dough will be hard coming out of the fridge but don’t worry it comes together nicely from the warmth of your hands.
Also you need to finely chop the pecans so that they can be completely incorporated into the dough. Lastly they are baked in a slow oven of 325F.
They don’t look very browned at this low temperature. You can carefully turn one over and you should see that it is lightly browned after 18-20 minutes.
For some reason I have been a bit hesitant to share this recipe with you all. It is like it is our family secret recipe but I know it is out there many, many times.
It is something that I truly cherish as it is a fond memory of my mom.
I still have the cookie tin that she used to store them in. It is a vintage santa cookie tin that my daughter now loves to hold her favorite Snowball Cookies in.
How to FREEZE Cookies
FAQ
Can you freeze a snowball?
What cookies do not freeze well?
Can you freeze cookies that have powdered sugar on them?