Holiday Snowball Cookies

My full time job has been keeping me very busy these months but now that the holiday season has approached, I am having a little break with my family on the mountains which means I have time to bake again!  I remember a friend gave me these holiday snowball cookies last year and they tasted sooo good so I searched for the recipe and found it on the ‘Very Best Baking by Nestle’ website.  It was such a simple recipe and didn’t take too much effort.

Ingredients:

1½ cups (3 sticks)	Butter (softened)
¾ cup	Powdered sugar
1 Tbsp	Vanilla extract
½ tsp	Salt
3 cups	All purpose flour
1 2/3 cups (10oz pkg)	Nestle Toll House Holiday Morsels
½ cup	Finely ground almonds
Extra powdered sugar	(for sprinkling on top)

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 375◦F.
2. Beat butter, sugar, vanilla extract and salt in a large mixer bowl until creamy.  Gradually beat in flour; stir in morsels and nuts.  Shape level tablespoons of dough into 1 1/4-inch balls.  Place on ungreased baking sheets.
3. Bake for 10-15 minutes or until cookies are set and lightly browned.  Remove from oven.  Sift powdered sugar over hot cookies on baking sheets.
4. Cool on baking sheets for 10 minutes; remove to wire racks to cool completely.  Sprinkle with additional powdered sugar, if desired.

Mexican Wedding Cookies

It has been a while since I last posted a recipe.  With Christmas approaching, all the Christmas songs and decorations reminded me tis is the season for baking.  Winter holidays are definately the time for sugar.  Every year, about one week before Christmas, my co-workers always bring in their delicious homemade goodies so I like to walk around and sample all of them.  These Mexican wedding cookies are one of my favorites – they are simply delicious and good as a gift for friends, neighbours and relatives.

Ingredients:

2 sticks (1 cup) ½ cup 1½ cups 1 tsp 2 ¼ cups ¾ cup ¾ tsp

Unsalted butter, softened Confectioners sugar Confectioners sugar (for rolling only) Vanilla extract All-purpose flour Very finely chopped pecans Salt

Directions:

1. Finely chopped pecans and set aside.  (picture 1)
2. Beat together butter and ½ cup confectioners sugar in an electric mixer at moderately high speed until pale and fluffy, about 4 minutes.  (picture 2)
3. Beat in vanilla extract, then add in flour and salt (picture 3).
4. Add chopped pecans, mix everything at low speed until just combined (picture 4).  Covered and chill in the fridge for about 30 minutes.
5. Preheat oven to 375 ◦F.
6. Line baking sheet with parchment paper, roll level teaspoons of dough into ¾ – inch balls and arrange about 1 inch apart on the baking sheet.  I shaped cookie dough into a ball and a moon shape.  (picture 5)
7. Sift remaining 2 ½ cups confectioners sugar into a large shallow bowl, set aside.
8. Bake in batches in middle of oven until bottom are pale golden, about 10 minutes.  Immediately transfer hot cookies to confectioners sugar, gently rolling to coat well, then transfer to a rack to cool completely.
9. Roll cookies in confectioners sugar again when cooled.

Note:

Cookies can be kept in an airtight container at room temperature up to 3 weeks.

I received this snowman container from my neighbour, it has three tiers.  I put butter cookies in the first tier, Mexican wedding cookies in the second tier and Biscotti in the third tier.  Isn’t it cute?

Recipe for Spritz (Norwegian Butter Cookies) is here and recipe for Raisin Walnut Biscotti is here.  Happy baking!!

Related articles

• Mexican Wedding Cookies Recipe (kraftrecipes.com)