Pecan Snowball Cookies are one of my favorite holiday treats. I can never resist eating the snowball cookies I snag from my book club cookie swap on the way home in the car. There’s no hiding it – I enter the house and my sweater is coated with powdered sugar. It’s so worth it, even though I have to vac the car the next day.
So, that’s one reason why I only bake these cookies during the holiday season. There are few things in life so tempting to me as Pecan Snowball Cookies. Holidays are for sharing, and it would be a very bad thing for me to be left alone with these cookies.
The other reason why I only bake these cookies during the holiday season is that although I want to share them (I do, really I do), I can’t share them with Ron because I don’t use gluten-free flour in these cookies. We’ve come a long way when it comes to gluten-free baking, but these Pecan Snowball Cookies are basically a shortbread – mostly butter and flour, and my palate can tell the difference. Ok, I’ll say it – these cookies are for me! I’ll make gluten-free fare for Ron the rest of the year.
Pecan Snowball Cookies
Equipment
- stand mixer
- small cookie scoop
- Silpat-lined baking sheet
Ingredients
- 2 sticks unsalted butter
- 1 cup powdered sugar (divided)
- 1 teaspoon Forever Vanilla
- 2 ¼ cups all-purpose flour
- 1 cup chopped pecans
- ¼ teaspoon salt
Instructions
- Preheat oven and chop pecans – Preheat the oven to 350℉, convection bake setting. Finely chop the pecans, if needed.
- Cream the wet ingredients – Add the butter, 1/2 cup powdered sugar, and vanilla to the bowl of your stand mixer, and mix until smooth.
- Add the dry ingredients – Combine the flour, pecans, and salt, then add the to wet ingredients and mix until completely incorporated.
- Form the cookies – Add the rest of the powdered sugar to a wide bowl. Using a small cookie scoop to apportion the dough, roll each scoop between your palms into walnut-sized balls, the roll in the powdered sugar. Place 2 inches apart onto your baking sheet.
- Bake – Bake for 12 minutes, or until bottoms are light golden brown but tops are still pale, 12 to 15 minutes.
- Roll in more powdered sugar – Remove cookies from the oven and let sit on the baking sheets briefly, until cool enough to handle. Roll the warm cookies in the remainder of the powdered sugar to coat, then move them to a wire rack.
- Cool – Let the cookies cool completely.
INGREDIENT NOTE: You probably don’t have Forever Vanilla in your pantry, so of course you’ll use the pure vanilla extract that you do have on hand if you make Pecan Snowball Cookies. But let me tell you about Forever Vanilla – it’s a product from Westford Hill Distillers, crafted by our friends and neighbors, the Chatey’s. The base of Forever Vanilla is their own Rime Vodka, which is very, very good. They infuse the vodka with a few vanilla pods in an elegant bottle with a glass stopper. I use the infused tincture in my kitchen, and when it gets low I simply refill the bottle with more Rime Vodka. It becomes intoxicatingly infused by the next time I bake cookies.
If you’d like to be notified when new posts are added to this site, please subscribe below, and be sure to click through on the email you receive to confirm your subscription. If you don’t receive a confirmation email, please check your spam folder.