A high altitude recipe for buttery snowball cookies, full of nutty pecans, with a sweet coating of powdered sugar. These classic Christmas cookies are perfect for a cookie exchange during the holiday season.
You might also love these high altitude Christmas cookie recipes for old fashioned iced oatmeal cookies, soft and chewy ginger molasses cookies, and raspberry thumbprint sugar cookies.
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What are Snowball Cookies?
Snowball cookies are buttery, crumbly cookies made of a “short” dough (a high proportion of fat to flour), usually with some chopped nuts in the dough, and rolled in powdered sugar after they’re baked. They’re rich, flavorful, messy to eat, totally irresistible, and a classic cookie to add to your Christmas cookie boxes.
You might even know these holiday cookies by other names such as walnut balls, pecan balls, pecan meltaways, Danish wedding cookies, Russian tea cakes, Mexican wedding cookies, Italian wedding cookies, butter balls or snow drops. And if they’re molded into a crescent shape, they’re known as Viennese crescents or Greek kourabiedes. While there are slight differences in each variation, they’re completely delicious no matter what type of nut you add or how you flavor them. I like to make mine with chopped pecans and a little almond extract.
Why You’ll Love This Recipe
Easy to Make. You’ll need a stand mixer to make the cookie dough, and it comes together in just a few minutes. Then you just scoop the dough into balls and coat the cookies in powdered sugar after baking.
Standard Pantry Ingredients. Just a few simple ingredients is all you need to make these festive cookies.
High Altitude Tested. I develop all of the recipes on my site for Denver’s altitude of 5,280 feet. Making these cookies with the right ratio of flour, butter and sugar ensures that they don’t spread out and flatten when they bake, and maintain their pretty round shape.
See the recipe card at the end of the post for the full ingredients list and instructions.
Ingredients
- Butter. The key ingredient for a rich flavor in snowball cookies is butter. Use a good-quality, unsalted butter, or omit the extra salt in the recipe if you use salted butter.
- Powdered Sugar. You’ll need powdered sugar to sweeten the cookie dough, as well as for coating them after they bake.
- Vanilla + Almond Extracts. Flavor. The almond extract is optional if you prefer to leave it out.
- Salt. Balances the sweetness and enhances the flavor of the butter and nuts.
- Flour. All-purpose flour adds structure, and helps the cookies not to spread out and flatten.
- Pecans. Adds a buttery, nutty flavor. You could also use walnuts or almonds instead of pecans.
Instructions
- In the bowl of your stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the butter with 1/2 cup powdered sugar on medium speed for 2 minutes.
- Beat in the vanilla and almond extracts, and the salt.
- Add the flour and the chopped nuts, mix on low until combined but crumbly, then increase speed to medium high and beat just until the dough comes together.
- Use a small cookie scoop with a release lever to scoop 3 dozen balls of dough, then roll the dough into smooth balls between your hands. Place the dough balls on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper, cover with plastic wrap, and chill in the refrigerator for 1 hour.
- Preheat the oven to 350 F, and position a rack in the center of the oven.
- Space the cookie dough balls 1-2 inches apart on the baking sheet and bake for about 12 minutes, until pale golden brown.
- Let the cookies cool for several minutes, until cool enough to handle.
- Measure the remaining 1 cup powdered sugar into a bowl. While the cookies are warm, coat them in the powdered sugar. The sugar will melt into the cookies and become sticky. Let the cookies cool completely on a cooling rack, then coat them in the powdered sugar a second time.
Be sure to read all of my BAKING FAQs where I discuss ingredients, substitutions and common baking questions, so that you can be successful in your own baking!
Frequently Asked Questions
How long do snowball cookies last?
These cookies will last for about 1 week at room temperature, stored in an airtight container.
Can snowball cookies be frozen?
Yes, you can freeze the cookies in an airtight container for up to 3-6 months. When you thaw them out, remove them from the container while they’re frozen, place them on a tray or baking sheet and let them come to room temperature. Otherwise, condensation can form inside the container as they thaw, and ruin the powdered sugar.
Why didn’t the powdered sugar stick to my cookies?
The key to getting the powdered sugar to stick to snowball cookies is to first roll them in the sugar while they’re warm. This lets the first coating of sugar melt a little and become sticky. When the cookies are totally cool, roll them in the sugar again, so it can stick to the first layer of sugar.
Will this recipe work if I don’t live at high altitude?
This recipe should work well at sea level or low altitudes, too.
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High Altitude Snowball Cookies
All recipes on Curly Girl Kitchen are developed for high altitude at 5,280 feet. See FAQs for adjusting to higher or lower elevations.
Equipment
- Small Cookie Scoop with Release Lever (1 tablespoon capacity)
- Baking Sheet + Parchment Paper
Ingredients
- 1 cup unsalted butter, softened to room temperature
- 1 ½ cups powdered sugar, divided
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 tsp almond extract, optional
- ½ tsp coarse Kosher salt (if using table salt, use half the amount)
- 2 ¼ cups all-purpose flour, fluffed, spooned and leveled
- ¾ cup pecans, walnuts or almonds, finely chopped
Instructions
- In the bowl of your stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the butter with 1/2 cup powdered sugar on medium speed for 2 minutes.
- Beat in the vanilla and almond extracts, and the salt.
- Add the flour and the chopped nuts, mix on low until combined but crumbly, then increase speed to medium high and beat just until the dough comes together.
- Use a small cookie scoop with a release lever to scoop 3 dozen balls of dough, then roll the dough into smooth balls between your hands. Place the dough balls on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper, cover with plastic wrap, and chill in the refrigerator for 1 hour.
- Preheat the oven to 350 F, and position a rack in the center of the oven.
- Space the cookie dough balls 1-2 inches apart on the baking sheet and bake for about 12 minutes, until pale golden brown.
- Let the cookies cool for several minutes, until cool enough to handle.
- Measure the remaining 1 cup powdered sugar into a bowl. While the cookies are warm, coat them in the powdered sugar. The sugar will melt into the cookies and become sticky. Let the cookies cool completely on a cooling rack, then coat them in the powdered sugar a second time.
- Store the cooled cookies in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 1 week.
I tried this recipe and it is absolutely delicious and I am making another batch right now because we ate them all and I live at 4500 elev. They literally melt in your mouth 🎄