Snowballs
Around the holidays each year, my mom would make what we called "Sno-balls", and they're one of the cookies I've decided to continue making for myself as an adult. They're one of those things she would only make for Christmas, so it just feels wrong if I let a December go by without them!
What I realized a few years back was that these cookies are essentially the same as Mexican Wedding cookies, Italian Wedding cookies, and Russian Tea cookies, but with the addition of chocolate chips. They're almost shortbread-like – the dough itself is mildly sweet, dense, and sandy in texture. The defining flavor typically comes from the nuts, but Snowballs include chocolate chips too, so you can omit the nuts if your household (like mine) would sometimes just rather skip them. It was a fun coincidence that on the day I made these this past week, we got a good amount of snow – about 8 inches, which is enough to give everything a full coating and make the whole world look bright white and sparkling. I couldn't pass up the opportunity to take my photos of these Snowballs in real snow, which actually helped me realize how snow-like granulated sugar actually looks! My mom typically does colored sugar, and the traditional coating is powdered sugar, but I might have started my own tradition this year with regular white sugar.
SNOWBALLS
Prep Time: 15 minutes
Bake Time: 30 minutes
Makes about 6-7 dozen cookies*
Ingredients
1½ cups butter, softened
⅔ cup sugar
¼ t salt
2 t vanilla extract
2 T water
4 cups flour
12 oz semi-sweet chocolate chips
2 cups chopped walnuts (optional)
Optional decorating:
colored sugar sprinkles, powdered sugar, or regular granulated sugar
Directions
Preheat the oven to 300F. Place your chopped walnuts in a bag, and crush them a little further until you have some very small pieces in addition to slightly larger ones.
In a large bowl, combine your softened butter, sugar, salt, vanilla, and water until you have a smooth batter. Gradually add your flour, mixing it in thoroughly. The dough may be a little crumbly! Then stir in the chocolate chips and walnuts.
Roll the dough into 1-inch balls and place on a cookie sheet. Bake for 25-30 minutes. or until the bottoms of the cookies are golden brown. Let cool on a cooling rack.
Once the cookies are cooled, you can decorate them using either colored sugar, powdered sugar, or just regular sugar!
*I usually halve this recipe since it makes so many cookies: ¾ cup butter, ⅓ cup sugar, pinch of salt, 1 t vanilla, 1 T water, 2 cups flour, 6 oz chocolate chips, 1 cup chopped walnuts
Happy Eating,
Natalie