These tender, buttery snowball cookies are filled with chopped nuts and rolled in powdered sugar. They are simple to make (just 30 minutes to chill!) and look so pretty on a Christmas cookie tray!
Sweet & Simple Snowball Cookies
Snowball cookies are classic, old-fashioned cookies that are popular during the Christmas season. They’re similar to Russian tea cakes or Mexican wedding cookies, but we will be chilling the dough and using more cornstarch and flour here for round, snowball-like cookies!
What you’ll love about them:
- Melt in your mouth, extremely tender texture.
- An eggless cookie recipe!
- Not too sweet; most of the sweetness comes from the powdered sugar on the outside.
- Just 30 minutes of chilling!
I also include instructions for making chocolate chip snowball cookies, just in case you’d prefer to make those instead. Regardless of their add-ins, these cookies are so festive and wintery with their pretty powdered sugar exteriors ❄️
This recipe is so simple to make with just seven ingredients. Let’s go over them briefly before we get started!
What You Need
In recipes like this where we are using just a few ingredients, quality makes a big difference (especially with the butter!). Here are the most important ingredients we’ll be using today.
- Butter. I know it’s a splurge, but European butter will make your cookies taste even better than regular butter. I stick with unsalted butter and add salt myself, but you can use salted butter and skip the additional salt in the recipe.
- Powdered sugar. Also known as icing sugar or confectioner’s sugar, this is a key ingredient in snowball cookies. We’ll use it to sweeten the dough and encourage a tender texture, since powdered sugar also contains cornstarch. It’s important here for much of the same reason it’s an essential ingredient in my shortbread cookie recipe. We’ll also roll our cooled cookies in powdered sugar, giving them that classic snowball look!
- Cornstarch. Snowball cookies melt in your mouth, just like snow. This lovely texture comes from cornstarch, one of my favorite cookie ingredients. It adds tenderness and helps the cookies keep their round shape too.
- Nuts. You can use either pecans or walnuts. It’s very important to finely chop the nuts! If the nuts aren’t small enough, the cookies will fall apart when you bite into them.
SAM’S TIP: If you can’t chop your nuts fine enough with a knife, place them in the food processor and briefly pulse until chopped. Don’t go too far though, or you could end up with nut butter.
Remember, this is just an overview of the ingredients I used and why. For the full recipe please scroll down to the bottom of the post!
How to Make Snowball Cookies
- Beat the butter and sugar together with an electric mixer on high speed. The mixture should be light and fluffy when you are done.
- Stir in the vanilla and salt until well combined.
- Whisk together the dry ingredients in a separate bowl, then gradually add them to the wet ingredients.
- Add the nuts and use a spatula to fold them into the dough.
- Cover with plastic wrap and place in the fridge to chill for at least 30 minutes.
- Scoop and roll scant 1-tablespoon portions of dough between your palms. I recommend baking the cookies on a parchment paper lined baking sheet, but alternatively bake directly on an ungreased cookie sheet.
- Bake, then let cool for 10 minutes on the baking sheet. Transfer to a cooling rack to cool completely. It’s important that you don’t overbake these cookies, or they could become dry and crumbly instead of tender and melt in your mouth.
- Roll the cooled cookies through powdered sugar, coating liberally. Enjoy!
SAM’S TIP: Make sure to coat your cookies entirely in sugar so they look like actual snowballs (and so they taste right!). Let the cookies cool completely (otherwise the sugar melts on the cookie) then roll through sugar. Still not totally coated? Roll again! You can also sift sugar over the cookies after rolling.
Frequently Asked Questions
If you let your butter get too soft or skipped the chilling step, your cookies may spread. Stick to the recipe here (don’t make any substitutions or leave anything out!) and you should have perfectly round cookies.
Yes, although you will likely need to re-roll them in powdered sugar after they thaw. If you’d like to freeze the dough, follow the instructions for sugar coated cookies in my how to freeze cookie dough post.
Yes, this is actually my preferred way to enjoy them! However, I’d recommend reducing the nuts if you do. Or, if you want to skip the nuts entirely, follow the directions in the recipe card below.
Which do you prefer, snowball cookies with nuts or chocolate chips?
Enjoy!
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Snowball Cookies
Ingredients
- 1 cup (226 g) unsalted butter softened (European style preferred)
- ¾ cup (93 g) powdered sugar
- 1 ½ teaspoons vanilla extract
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 2 ¼ cups (280 g) all-purpose flour
- 2 Tablespoons (16 g) cornstarch
- ¾ cup (90 g) very finely chopped pecans or walnuts
- 1 ½ cups (188 g) powdered sugar for rolling
Recommended Equipment
Instructions
- Using an electric mixer, combine butter and sugar in a large bowl. Beat on high for several minutes, until light and fluffy.1 cup (226 g) unsalted butter, ¾ cup (93 g) powdered sugar
- Add vanilla extract and salt, stir well until combined.1 ½ teaspoons vanilla extract, ½ teaspoon salt
- In a medium sized mixing bowl, whisk together flour and cornstarch.2 ¼ cups (280 g) all-purpose flour, 2 Tablespoons (16 g) cornstarch
- Gradually add flour/cornstarch mixture to butter mixture, stir until completely combined.
- Add pecans, fold in with a spatula until evenly distributed.¾ cup (90 g) very finely chopped pecans or walnuts
- Cover bowl with plastic wrap and chill in the refrigerator for at least 30 minutes.
- Once dough is almost done chilling, preheat oven to 350F (175C) and line several baking sheets with parchment paper. Set aside.
- Scoop chilled cookie dough into scant 1 Tablespoon-sized scoop. Roll gently between your palms to form a smooth ball. Place cookies on baking sheet, spacing at least 2” (5cm) apart, and transfer to center rack of 350F (175C) preheated oven for 10 minutes. Allow to cool for 10 minutes on baking sheet before carefully transferring to a cooling rack to cool completely.
- Allow cookies to cool completely before rolling through powdered sugar until liberally coated with sugar. Enjoy!1 ½ cups (188 g) powdered sugar
Notes
Nuts
Substitute your favorite nut. Nuts may also be omitted or you may substitute 1 ½ cup/250g of mini chocolate chips.Storing
Store in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 5 days.Nutrition
Nutritional information is based on third-party calculations and should be considered an estimate only. Actual nutritional content will vary based upon brands used, measuring methods, cooking method, portion sizes, and more.
Linda
Would you have a recipe fir cinnamon sugar snowballs or how would I change this recipe
Sam
I would probably roll them in cinnamon sugar. 🙂
Linda
Why use cornstarch never seen it in other snowball recipes
Sam
Hi Linda! I talk about this in the post, but it makes a better texture and flavor. 🙂
Linda
Where would it be in the post
Sam
Under the heading “what you need”
Kathryn
Love these I have them several times but my recipe didn’t have cornstarch very yummy thank you
Lisa
Made these & they turned out beautifully! Thank you for this recipe . Its definitely a keeper ❤️
Sam
Thank you so much for trying my recipe, Lisa, I appreciate it! 🙂
Carolyn
Sam for the win!
Courtney
Hello,
What’s the difference between this and the Russian Tea Cakes recipe on your site? I’m planning to make snowball cookies tomorrow but don’t know which of your two recipes to go with 🙂
Sam
Hi Courtney, they’re super similar. You can’t go wrong with either, but I have been preferring the snowball cookies recently. They’re a bit softer and melt-in-your-mouth.
Courtney
Great, thank you!
Abigail
Definitely a go to recipe, these are so tasty!
Sam
I’m so glad you enjoyed, Abigail, thank you for trying my recipe!
Susan Holl
Great recipe! I sub non-hydrogenated vegan butter (earth balance, casein/dairy allergy) and omit the cornstarch. On my first try, the cookies with the cornstarch were a little hard.
Marthani
So festivy
Elizabeth Gralike
I just love these cookies.