Pecan Snowball Cookies
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These melt-in-your-mouth pecan snowball cookies have an irresistible moist center like a chewy shortbread cookie. It’s the perfect to bake these holidays.
I love this recipe for pecan snowball cookies. I used to find my buggy steering towards the grocery store each year for the store-bought ones. I’ve always wanted to make my own and wondered if they would be even better at home. Well, the good news is, a few years ago I FINALLY got a recipe for them from Mama! The bad news is, they taste even better than store-bought snowball cookies.
Fortunately, it takes a small list of simple ingredients to make these buttery pecan snowball cookies, like flour, sugar, vanilla extract, butter, salt, and finely chopped nuts. While I use pecans, hence the name, you can use whichever nuts you prefer. All you have to do is slowly combine the ingredients, bake the cookies, and roll them in confectioner’s sugar once cooled, so they get that snowball effect!
Trust me, the inside of these pecan snowball cookies is an absolute delight! It’s like a yummy buttery shortbread with finely chopped nuts inside.
If you’re in the market for other holiday cookies to bake this year, check out this post, which features 14 of my favorite Christmas cookie recipes. Happy baking!
Recipe Ingredients
- All-purpose flour
- Sugar
- Vanilla extract
- Butter
- Finely chopped nuts of your choice (I chop mine in the ).
- Salt
How To Make Pecan Snowball Cookies
Place your softened butter, sugar, and salt in a mixing bowl and cream it until it’s git up and go done got up and went.
Like this.
Next, add your flour to the wet ingredients.
This is where the original snowball cookie recipe said to sift the flour. Pfft. Right. I have a sifter and it sits upon a pretty little shelf in my kitchen where it collects dust. I don’t sift. It is against my personal convictions.
Just dump your flour in there. Be rebellious with me.
Pour in your vanilla extract.
The recipe calls for two teaspoons but y’all know I just kinda pour and leave it up to the good Lord how much ends up in there.
It’s called divine baking – and I just made that term up. How cool is that? Stick with me, we’ll be the cool kids, even if no one knows it but us!
Oh, you’re gonna need to scrape down the sides of your bowl some but you’ll figure that out…
Dump in your finely pecans.
Oh, now you need to mix it all up again until well combined.
Like this.
Go ahead and get you a pinch of that dough and taste it. Be sure to save some to bake though…I know it will be tempting.
It’s baking time!
I used my little cookie dough scoop and made some pretty generous-sized cookies. You can just make them with your hands and make little one-inch balls and have twice as many as I did.
However, I was in a lazy, cookie dough scoop kinda mood and when I’m in those moods I try not to deny myself the pleasure of indulging in the easy way out.
Now, bake ’em at 325 for 20 minutes, ensuring you don’t overbake them.
I made about 30 but you can easily make 50 or so instead.
After they cool, roll each in powdered sugar.
These pecan snowball cookies are absolutely, melt in your mouth, delicious.
Here is what the inside of one would look like if your teeth were actually a butter knife.
What pretty little snowballs! One bite and you’ll be making this every year from here on out!
Storage
- Store your cookies in an airtight container at room temperature or in the fridge for up to 1 week.
- You can also freeze either the unbaked cookie dough or the baked cookies for up to 3 months. Once you thaw the baked snowball cookies, roll them in sugar once more.
Recipe Notes
- Make sure to use in the and not , as we want the batter to be nice and smooth.
- If you have time, you can toast the pecans in the oven for about 10 minutes before chopping them and adding them to the cookie dough. It really elevates the flavor!
- Don’t be afraid to double-roll your snowball cookies in powdered sugar so they truly resemble snowballs!
- Besides pecans, you can use walnuts, almonds, pistachios, hazelnuts, or cashews. Just ensure they’re roasted and finely chopped before adding to the cookie dough.
- If you opt for almonds, you can also add 1/2 teaspoon of almond extract to the recipe to enhance the flavor. Another option is substituting the vanilla extract for lemon juice and adding 1 tablespoon of lemon zest to make almond lemon snowballs.
- Speaking of almonds… substitute the all-purpose flour for almond flour to make gluten-free snowball cookies.
- Here are more additions to add to your cookie dough when you fold in the pecans:
- 2/3 cup of sprinkles
- 3/4 cup mini chocolate chips to make chocolate snowballs.
Recipe FAQs
What are some other names for snowball cookies?
Snowball cookies are also called Mexican wedding cookies (which we have a recipe for right here), Russian tea cakes, snowdrop cookies, Southern Butterballs, Pecan Sandies, and Italian butter cookies. But no matter what you call them, they’re utterly delicious!
You may also like these other holiday cookie recipes:
Candy Cane Cookies (Elf Favorite!)
Thumbprint Cookies with Jam or Preserves
Southern Plate’s Must-Make Christmas Cookies
Ingredients
- 1 cup softened butter
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 2 cups finely ground nuts of your choice I'm using pecans
- confectioner's sugar
Instructions
- Cream together the butter, sugar, and salt until fluffy. Add the flour and vanilla extract and mix well, scraping down the sides as needed. Add finely chopped pecans and mix until well incorporated.1 cup softened butter, 1/2 cup sugar, 2 teaspoons vanilla extract, 2 cups all-purpose flour, 1/2 teaspoon salt, 2 cups finely ground nuts of your choice
- Shape into one-inch balls of cookie dough (mine are bigger because I use a little cookie dough scoop) and place them on an ungreased baking sheet. Bake at 325 for 20 minutes, but don't let them brown.
- Cool the cookies. When cooled, roll each snowball cookie in confectioner's sugar.confectioner's sugar
Video
Nutrition
“Just when the caterpillar thought the world was over….
it became a butterfly!”
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Oh, by the way, the store brought ones don’t even hold a stick to these homemade cookies!
Lordy, isn’t it crazy how one word can be pronouced so many different ways! I pronounce pecan pee-kahn…. I once heard Emeril says pee- cans are for truckers 😉
Mama always made these and shaped them into little crescent shapes and called them crescent cookies. Then she realized it was much easier to go the ball route. One thing you do want to do it roll them in the sugar while they are still hot. I love them and after reading an earlier post I am going to rename them tattletails because they certainly do tell on you. Like when my daughter was little and I caught her eating some of the little white coated donuts but she denied ever getting into them. Her white mouth gave it all away! Love your site and I have asked for your cookbook for Christmas. That is the only thing on my wish list this year and if Santa doesn’t bring it then I will have to go get it myself. Just hope I can wait that long!
Don’t you just love how kids think they are getting away with something all the while telling on themselves? Too cute, thank you for sharing.
Just bought these nougats for the first time early last Dec. Big mistake…I bought 2 every time I went to the grocery store from then on when they were available. Cannot wait to look for them tomorrow when I go shopping! But yours look a million times better and I know they taste better ~ nothing beats homemade!
I hope you will be able to make yourself some soon Sheila!
My mother has a similar recipe that we have used for 30+ years here in Huntsville, AL. We call them ‘Sand Tarts’. It is so interesting to see the different names for the same cookie. Sometimes the cookie absorbs the sugar, and if we are taking these to a party, we sift a little more sugar on top of our tray of Sand Tarts. Works great and don’t you just love lickin’ the sugar off your fingers?! Mmmm!
That is the best part!
These have been a favorite of mine since I was about 7 years old, but really became my favoirte when at about the age of 9 I won a 4-H contest when I entered them and won the whole state for my age group with them. I love them it just isn’t Christmas without them and we even do them for like wedding showers and teas and such anything you want a great cookie for. Everyone seems to love them. And for those of you that ask yes they are kinda like wedding cookies, or Mexican wedding cookies. They are great you will want to make two batches when you cook that day cause they go really fast. That’s what we leave out for Santa at our house!!!!
Didn’t you just love 4-H? And I agree, you need to make double batches…maybe more.
Gee. Thanks. I just finished losing 28 lbs and swore I’d keep them off. Now I’m on the way to the store to get some puh-kahns. I think these are the same cookies that my EX boyfriend’s mother used to make for Christmas. They’re the only things I miss about him. Thanks!!
Maybe you could just eat one Linda. Ok, I’m kidding, I could never eat just one. So maybe just 2.
Girl, I love you. here I am a GRITS (born and raised Richmond, VA) and living in Boise, ID (Boy-Cee not Boy-Zee) and I miss home so much. Everyone of your posts makes me smile and remember why I love beings GRITS.
I am so glad you enjoy my posts and that they offer you a little bit of home! GRITS forever!