Pecan Snowball Cookies: These tender, buttery pecan snowball cookies, rolled in powdered sugar, are a Christmas time favorite made with just 5 ingredients!
Get that glass of milk ready, because it is cookie season! Around Christmas time, my cookie jar and holiday cookie tray are never empty. Whether I’ve made no bake cornflake wreath cookies or a batch of cut out sugar cookies to decorate with our boys, cookies and Christmas go hand in hand. I know I can’t go wrong with classic snowball cookies!
Why you’ll love this recipe
If this is your first time making snowball cookies, you will absolutely adore these melt in your mouth cookies. Each tasty little snowball has a sweet powdered sugar coating and a crumbly, buttery cookie center. Yep, I’m pretty sure these are the best ever snowball cookies!
With just 5 simple ingredients, this is an easy snowball cookie recipe. It is pretty much a mix, roll and bake kind of recipe and you know easy recipes are my favorite!
If you need a snow day activity, let the kids help! They can roll the cookies into balls before baking and then roll the cooled cookies in powdered sugar.
These cookies are so festive and perfect for the holiday season! With their sweet powdered sugar coating, pecan snowball cookies really do look like little snowballs piled up on your Christmas cookie tray.
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Ingredients
With a quick trip to your grocery store or even just a visit to your kitchen, you can make buttery snowball cookies with just 5 basic ingredients!
- 2 sticks (1 cup) salted butter, softened
- 2 1/3 cups powdered sugar, divided
- 1 3/4 cups all purpose flour
- 1 1/4 cups pecan halves, finely chopped
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
See the printable recipe card below for ingredients, nutrition information and detailed recipe notes.
Instructions
If this your first time making snowball cookies, then you have come to the right place. We have step-by-step instructions with photos below to make baking these pecan snowballs a breeze!
- First, use a food processor or hand held chopper to chop 1 1/4 cups of pecan halves into finely ground pieces.
- Next, in a small bowl, combine 1 3/4 cups of all purpose flour with the ground pecans and set aside.
- Now, in a medium bowl, cream 2 sticks of softened, salted butter with 1/3 cup of powdered sugar using a hand mixer until the mixture is fluffy and light yellow. Add 2 teaspoons of vanilla extract to the butter mixture and cream to combine.
- Add the flour and nut mixture to the creamed butter and use a wooden spoon to mix the dough by hand until it is combined. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and chill the dough for 20 minutes.
- Now, preheat the oven to 350 degrees F and line 2 or 3 cookie sheets with parchment paper.
- Using a cookie scoop to portion the dough, roll each scoop of dough into a ball.
- Place the dough balls on the prepared baking sheets and bake them for about 10 minutes or just until they are lightly browned on the bottom. The cookies will be light in color, so watch them carefully so they are not overbaked. All the cookies to cool for about 2 minutes.
- Finally, place the remaining 2 cups of powdered sugar in a shallow bowl and rolls the cookies in the powdered sugar. Place them on a cooling rack to cool completely. Once the cookies have cooled, roll them in powdered sugar a second time and enjoy!
Aren’t these sweet little snowballs pretty? I think they are just gorgeous to pile on a cake stand or cookie tray.
Substitutions
If you are looking for a few alternatives to the ingredients or methods we used in this snowball cookies recipe, see our suggestions below.
- Nuts – We made pecan cookies, but you can use walnuts or almonds instead.
- Extract – Another common way to adjust the flavor of this cookie recipe is to replace half of the vanilla extract with almond extract.
- Butter – While we used salted butter for this recipe, you can use unsalted butter as well. Just add 1/2 teaspoon of salt to the dough to help balance the sweetness and enhance the flavor of the cookies.
- Cookie scoop – Finally, if you don’t have a cookie scoop, you can use a tablespoon to measure the dough. That way, the cookies are uniform in size for even baking.
Just look at those melt in your mouth pecan snowballs!
FAQs
Snowball cookies have just 5 ingredients: nuts, flour, butter, vanilla and powdered sugar.
You may have heard them called Mexican wedding cookies, Mexican wedding cake cookies, pecan sandies, Italian wedding cookies or Russian tea cakes. While they may have different names, they are all very similar recipes for cookies made with a simple nut based cookie dough and powdered sugar coating.
The most common reason that snowball cookies might flatten is that the ingredients were too warm and the dough didn’t chill long enough. Chilling the dough ensures that the cookies keep their snowball shape while baking.
Yes! Simply roll the dough into balls and place them in the freezer until the cookie dough is frozen. Place the frozen balls in an airtight container or freezer bag in the freezer for up to 3 months. When you are ready to bake the cookies, allow them to thaw in the refrigerator and follow the rest of the recipe.
Storage
Store these pecan snowball cookies in an airtight container at room temperature for up to a week.
To freeze pecan snowball cookies, bake them and allow them to cool completely. Do not roll them in powdered sugar. Place the baked cookies in an airtight container or freezer bag in the freezer for up to 3 months. When you are ready to enjoy them, thaw them in the refrigerator and then roll the cookies twice in powdered sugar.
More cookies for Santa
‘Tis the season for holiday baking and you can’t go wrong with these Christmas cookie recipes! You will stay firmly on Santa’s nice list with classic gingerbread cookies, adorable Rudolph reindeer cookies, gooey red velvet cookies or decadent chocolate cherry cookies!
Did you make this? I’d be so grateful if you left a “star” rating below to let me know what you thought! Then, the next time you need a quick and easy recipe, come back to Fantabulosity to browse all of my easy recipes!
📖 Recipe
Pecan Snowball Cookies
Ingredients
- 2 sticks salted butter softened
- 2 ⅓ cups powdered sugar divided
- 1 ¾ cups all purpose flour
- 1 ¼ cups pecan halves finely chopped
- 2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
Instructions
- First, use a food processor or hand held chopper to chop 1 1/4 cups of pecan halves into finely ground pieces.
- Next, in a small bowl, combine 1 3/4 cups flour with the ground pecans and set aside.
- Now, in a medium mixing bowl, cream 2 sticks of softened, salted butter and 1/3 cup of powdered sugar with a hand mixer. Beat for 2 minutes until the mixture is fluffy and light yellow. Add 2 teaspoons of vanilla extract to the butter mixture and cream to combine.
- Add the flour and nut mixture to the creamed butter and use a wooden spoon to mix the dough by hand until it is combined. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and chill the dough for 20 minutes.
- Now, preheat the oven to 350 degrees F and prepare a cookie sheet with parchment paper.
- Using a cookie scoop, roll each scoop of dough into a ball.
- Place the dough balls on the prepared baking sheet and bake them for about 10 minutes or just until lightly browned on the bottom. The cookies will be light in color so watch them carefully so they are not overbaked. Allow the cookies to cool for about 2 minutes.
- Finally, place the remaining 2 cups of powdered sugar in a shallow bowl and roll the cookies in the powdered sugar. Place them on a cooling rack to cool completely. Once the cookies have cooled, roll them a second time in the powdered sugar and enjoy!
Notes
- You can substitute almonds or walnuts for the pecans in this recipe.
- If you are using almonds, you can substitute almond extract for half of the vanilla extract.
- If you don’t have a cookie scoop, roll about 1 tablespoon of cookie dough into 1-inch balls and place them on the baking sheet.
- If you have unsalted butter on hand, you can use it and add 1/2 teaspoon of salt.
- If the dough seems a bit dry and does not roll into balls, add 1/2 tablespoon of water until the dough holds together.
- Store these pecan snowball cookies in an airtight container at room temperature for up to one week.
- To freeze the dough, scoop the cookie dough onto a baking sheet and place the sheet in the freezer until the dough is frozen. Place the dough balls in an airtight container or freezer bag in the freezer for up to 3 months. Allow them to thaw in the refrigerator and then follow the remainder of the recipe.
- To freeze the already baked cookies, allow the cookies to cool but do not roll them in powdered sugar. Place them in an airtight container or freezer bag in the freezer for up to 3 months. Allow them to thaw in the refrigerator and then roll the cookies in powdered sugar twice.
Nutrition
Nutritional information is based on third-party calculations and should be considered estimates. Actual nutritional content will vary with brands used, measuring methods, portion sizes and more.
Julia says
I make these cookies every single year, this is definitely my go to recipe! They come out super soft and quite tasty! Thanks for posting!
Sharina says
I enjoyed making these cute pecan snowball cookies. They’re so simple and delicious. Highly recommended!
Jen C says
Thank you so much for this recipe! These are even better than my grandma’s!