Let's Have Snowballs All Year Round

Christmas is that time of year where you get to indulge in those really special holiday treats.  I remember growing up my mom always made the best candy, fudge, cookies and bars during Christmas.  By the time New Year’s rolled around, I felt like I gorged on sweets because I wouldn’t have them for another year. 

But I got to thinking…why do we have to wait a WHOLE year to enjoy those goodies that we love so much?  So last year, I literally had a never ending supply of these little tea cakes.  When I got down to 1 or 2 left I would make another batch.  These snowballs aren’t too sweet, and they are very cheap and quick to make.  And when you are living on a graduate student budget, nothing is more delicious then cheap and quick.

 Snowballs:

2-¼ cup AP Flour

½ cup powdered sugar (plus more for rolling tea cakes in)

¾ cup nuts (I like walnuts or pecans for these)

¼ tsp salt

1 tsp vanilla

1 cup unsalted butter

So for the butter I feel like room temperature butter isn’t soft enough, but melted butter makes the dough too soupy, so I “lightly” melt the butter.  Melt both sticks of room temperature butter together in the microwave, in 15 second intervals, for no longer than 1 minute.  Not all of it should be completely melted.  Stir the butter.  The heat from what has melted already should make the rest of the butter soft enough to mix together. And there you go, lightly melted butter…Okay…onward with the cakes.

To the butter add the powdered sugar, salt, vanilla, and nuts.  Stir to combine, and then add sifted flour.  Mix until dough comes together.  It will be soft.  I use a small ice cream scoop to scoop out the dough into 2-inch balls, and place on a cookie sheet.  You can place them close together because they won’t spread.  While the oven is pre-heating I stick the tray in the fridge just to let the cakes firm up a little bit before baking.  Bake at 400 degrees for 10-12 minutes until the cookies are golden brown around the bottom edges. 

Let the cookies cool at room temperature for 20-30 minutes.  They should be slightly warm still.  Roll them in powdered sugar, let them dry for another 20-30 minutes, and then roll them again in powdered sugar.  Mmm snowballs.  

 And now with this recipe, you no longer have to wait until winter for snowballs. :)