Pecan Snowball Cookies

A pile of snowball cookies with a bite taken from one to show texture.

4.82 from 11 votes

Sometimes called Russian tea cookies or Mexican wedding cookies, this snowball cookies recipe is a classic holiday cookie. that you do not want to miss.

Prep Time10 mins

Cook Time10 mins

Total Time20 mins

Course: baking, Dessert, dessert-cookies

Cuisine: American, Mexican, Russian

Diet: Halal

Servings: cookies

Calories: 150kcal

Author: Amira

Ingredients

¾ cup Pecans finely chopped
2 ¼ cups All purpose flour
½ teaspoon Salt
1 cup Unsalted butter room temperature
½ teaspoon Vanilla extract
½ teaspoon Almond extract
½ cup Powdered sugar and more for dusting

Instructions

Preheat your oven to 400F.
Chop the pecans so that they're nice and small pieces.
In a medium bowl, combine the flour, finely chopped pecans and salt and stir with a whisk.
In a large mixing bowl, or the bowl of a stand mixer, with your mixer on medium speed beat the butter, vanilla extract, almond extract and powdered sugar until creamy.
Turn the mixer down to a low speed and add the flour mixture, half cup at a time until evenly mixed and dough-like.
Using a 1" cookie scoop form 1" balls of dough and roll in your hands until an even ball has been formed.
One a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper line the cookie dough balls (they won't spread so leave only ½" to 1" between each ball of cookie dough.
Bake in the oven for 9-10 minutes.
Remove from the oven and allow to cool for about 5 minutes or until able to handle.
Roll each ball in powdered sugar and place on a cooling rack to cool completely.
Roll in powdered sugar again after completely cooled.

Notes

Chopping pecans is necessary because when you buy chopped pecans, the pieces are not small enough. You'll want really small pieces of pecans, so more chopping in the food processor gets the pieces nice and small.
If the cookies flattened during cooking then there was too much butter. Make sure to be precise when measuring out.
If the dough starts to feel soft, you can chill the dough balls a little before going into the oven, about 30 minutes. You can expect the dough balls to flatten just a tiny bit during cooking, at the bottom but not much.
The second coat of sugar is important because I find that the first dusting of powdered sugar kind of dissolves into the cookie a little and so to get that nice white finish a second coat is needed.

Storage:

Once cooled completely these snowball cookies can be store in an airtight container lined with paper towels for up to 2 weeks.
If you're planning on serving them later in the week then I suggest saving that second coat of powdered sugar until right before you serve them.

Variations:

Switch up the type of nuts used in your snowball cookies. Give it a try with finely chopped hazelnuts, pistachios or walnuts instead of pecans.
Add mini chocolate chips to the cookie dough before rolling into balls.
Use festive food coloring or gels to make them green or red.
Roll them in edible cake glitter for a sweet sparkle.
Make them chocolate! Swap out ¼ cup of the flour with ¼ cup of unsweetened cocoa powder.

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