Name: Christmas Snowball Cookies
Prep time: 5 min
Cook time: 10 min
Total time: 35 min
Yield: 1
Cuisine: American
Ingredients: 1 cup salted butter, softened; 1/3 cup + 2 cups powdered sugar; 3/4 cups all-purpose ﬂour; 1 1/4 cups ﬁnely chopped pecans; 2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Jump to Recipe

Christmas Snowball Cookies are butter cookie balls rolled in powdered sugar. This classic Christmas cookie melts in your mouth and only takes 5 ingredients to make.

Traditional snowball cookies have many names. They are also known as Mexican Wedding Cookies, Russian Tea Cakes, Italian Wedding Cookies, and even Butterballs.

Having different names goes to show that these cute little snowballs have international fame, and for a very long time. Perhaps every country and culture has a form of these buttery cookies.

So simple to make, they have all the features that satisfy when the craving hits: sweet, buttery, fluffy and nutty.

I’ve made these butter cookies covered in snowy white powdered sugar for so many years. So it was about time I shared one of my favorite holiday recipes here on My Organized Chaos.

The Perfect Christmas cookie

Delicious, winter-like and festive, they are also so easy to make. Taking less than an hour from start to finish, anyone can fit this type of holiday baking into their busy schedule.

This is why these buttery snowball cookies with a powdered sugar coating are a staple for any cookie exchange or party for the holiday season.

Your whole family will love these on your christmas cookie tray. I love to enjoy snowball cookies as an afternoon treat with a cup of hot coffee and our Homemade Powdered Eggnog Creamer.

Yet it is the season for sharing and giving – so think of these for parties or your next cookie exchange. Simple yet addicting!

You might want to make a second batch because they also make a wonderful homemade gift. I’ve given these and Christmas Trash Snack Mix and they have both been a huge hit.

For another variation on this recipe, try our Peanut Butter Snowballs.

For a chocolaty no-bake version, these No Bake Oreo Snowballs are the perfect holiday recipe.

RECIPE OVERVIEW

Why You’ll Love it: This Christmas treat is a quick and easy no-bake treat. With just 5 ingredients you have a treat that everyone will love. They even make a great homemade gift.

Total Time: 30 Minutes

Makes: 3 Dozen Cookies

Ingredients Required

With just 5 simple ingredients, you might have all you need in the pantry with no trip to the grocery store required.

As always, the printable recipe card for this christmas snowball cookie recipe is at the end of the post.

Salted Butter – Helps to hold it into ball shape
Powdered Sugar – For the sweetness of the ball, along with the dusting on the outside
All Purpose Flour
Vanilla Extract – For Flavor
Finely Chopped Pecans – For crunch and flavor

food in a dish, with Christmas Snowball Cookies

How to Make Snowball Christmas Cookies

In a small mixing bowl, combine the ﬂour and ﬁnely chopped pecans. Set aside.
Add the butter and 1/3 cup of powdered sugar to a medium mixing bowl.

Cream together using a hand mixer or electric mixer, about 2 minutes on medium speed.

Add vanilla and mix well.
Add the dry mixture to the butter mixture. Mix until the dough comes together and is combined.

Cover with plastic wrap and chill dough for 20 minutes in the refrigerator.
Meanwhile, pre-heat the oven to 350 degrees F. Also prepare the cookie sheet with parchment paper.
Using a small cookie scoop, roll cookie dough into 1-inch balls and place each dough ball on the prepared baking sheet.

These cookies will not spread during cooking, yet make sure they aren’t touching each other on the sheet.

Bake these classic snowball cookies for 10 minutes, or until lightly browned on the bottom. Do not over bake.
When cookies are cool enough to handle, (around 2 minutes out of the oven) gently roll them in the powdered sugar. Then place on a wire rack to cool.

After the pecan snowball cookies have cooled a bit, roll the cookies a second time in the powdered sugar.
Enjoy a warm cookie or at room temperature.

Storage

Store these easy Christmas cookies at room temperature in an airtight container, for up to one week.

Can I Freeze These Cookies?

These can be frozen for up to 3 months in a freezer-safe container.

For best results, freeze the cookie dough as a whole, then thaw in the fridge and proceed with rolling and baking.

You can freeze Christmas Snowball Cookies after baking. Yet make sure they are seperated by wax paper so they do not stick together.

You will need to re-roll the butter balls in additional powdered sugar after defrosting.

Tips For Success:

It’s important or the cookie balls to be uniform in size, for adequate baking uniformly.
Use a food processor or hand held chopper to ﬁnely chop the walnuts.
You can use unsalted butter in place of salted. If doing so, add 1/2 teaspoon salt.
Walnuts may be substituted for the pecans.
If the dough seems dry and does not hold together in the shape of a round ball in your hand, simply add water to the dough. Start with 1/2 Tablespoon till you can roll the ball without it being crumbly.
Adding in more or less of the chopped nuts and/or ﬂour will aﬀect the texture of the cookie.

Variations on this Recipe:

Feel free to omit the nuts for chocolate chips or M&Ms candy.

You can also add another extract flavor for variety. For example, you can use peppermint a to make peppermint snowball cookies.

Try this recipe using almond extract.

Roll in green melted chocolate to make grinch cookies.

Our Favorite Christmas Cookie Recipes