These delicious shortbread cookies have a deep, rich chocolate flavor and are packed with chopped pecans. The cookies are rolled in powdered sugar to create festive, tasty little snowballs perfect for the holiday season and beyond!
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The holiday season is all about fun baking projects that the whole family can get in on, and these cookies are an easy one that you will love baking up together! These cookies feature only a few simple ingredients and require no special decorating skills. The kids will love helping shape them into balls and rolling them in the powdered sugar!
Ingredients You Need to Make These Cookies
- Unsalted butter. Soften butter by leaving it out at room temperature for at least an hour. You can also leave the butter out on the counter overnight if you will be baking the next morning.
- Powdered sugar. Powdered sugar is used both in the cookie dough and for rolling the cookies in after baking.
- Unsweetened cocoa powder. I recommend dark cocoa such as Hershey's Special Dark to get the deep chocolate color you see in these cookies. You can also use regular cocoa powder if you prefer.
- Vanilla extract. I recommend a good quality vanilla extract for these cookies to get the best flavor.
- Almond extract. Pure almond extract adds another layer of flavor that is absolutely delicious in these cookies.
- All-purpose flour. This is the best variety of flour for these shortbread cookies. Be sure and measure your flour properly by, fluffing, spooning in the measuring cup, and leveling off with a knife.
- Salt. We add just a small amount of salt to the dough to bring out the other flavors.
- Chopped pecans. You can purchase pecans that are already chopped or you can chop pecan pieces or halves yourself. I like to leave to some slightly larger chunks of pecans intact to give the cookies a nice crunchy element.
How to Make This Recipe
Preheat your oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Line two baking sheets with parchment and set aside.
Add butter, powdered sugar, cocoa powder, vanilla extract, and almond extract to a medium mixing bowl and beat with an electric hand mixer until fluffy, about 3-5 minutes.
I recommend using your free hand as a guard for the bowl while mixing, as the cocoa and sugar can cause a bit of a mess at first. It will look like the mixture will not get creamy at first, but it will after a minute or two.
Add the salt and flour to the bowl, one cup at a time, and mix until combined and no more dry flour is visible. The dough will be crumbly.
Add chopped pecans to the bowl and mix on low speed until the pecans are evenly mixed into the dough. You will not be able to fold the pecans into the dough because this is a crumbly shortbread cookie dough.
Using a cookie scoop, scoop balls of dough into the palm of your hand and form them into neat balls by rolling them in between both palms.
Place cookies onto your prepared baking sheets, spaced evenly apart. They do not need much room as the cookies will not spread while baking. Bake cookies in the preheated oven for 7-10 minutes, or until the bottoms are slightly browned and the tops are no longer glossy.
Once the cookies have cooled enough to handle, add one cup of powdred sugar to a medium bowl and roll the cookies in the powdered sugar to completely coat each cookie. Transfer them to a wire rack to cool completely.
After the cookies have completely cooled I recommend rolling them in the powdered sugar once more to really maximize the snowball effect. Enjoy!
What are Snowball Cookies?
Snowball cookies are small, round shortbread cookies that are typically rolled in powdered sugar after baking, which makes them resemble little snowballs.
Other names you have probably seen this type of cookie go by are Mexican Wedding Cookies or Italian Wedding Cookies. These versions typically do not contain chocolate, however.
Snowball cookies are not very sweet but are extremely rich from the amount of butter in the dough. The powdered sugar coating is the perfect complement to the buttery shortbread cookie interior.
A Few Notes for Making These Cookies
Be sure and soften your butter properly before making the cookie dough. You want your butter to be room temperature, not heated or almost melted. The best way to soften butter is to simply leave it out on the counter for a couple of hours.
Do not overbake these cookies. The chocolate color can make it hard to tell when they are ready, but the telltale sign is when the tops of the cookies are no longer glossy or shiny. You are better off with a slightly underbaked cookie than a hard overbaked one.
I highly recommend rolling the cookies in the powdered sugar a second time after they have cooled completely. This really gives them the bright white snowball look!
Variations of This Recipe
There are tons of different versions of snowball cookie recipes out there. Feel free to try different mix-ins and flavors all holiday season. Here are some variations I have seen:
- Red velvet snowball cookies
- Double chocolate snowball cookies
- Vanilla snowball cookies
- Walnut snowball cookies
- Maple snowball cookies
Storing and Make-Ahead Instructions
These cookies can be stored at room temperature in a zip-top bag or festive storage tin for up to five days.
You can also prepare the cookie dough and freeze it by wrapping it tightly in plastic wrap and placing it in a freezer bag until ready to bake. Thaw the dough in the refrigerator the day before baking.
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📖 Recipe
Chocolate Butter Pecan Snowball Cookies
Equipment
Ingredients
- 1 cup unsalted butter two sticks, softened
- ¾ cup powdered sugar plus more for rolling cookies in
- ⅔ cup unsweetened cocoa powder I used special dark for this recipe
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- ½ teaspoon almond extract
- 2 cups all-purpose flour fluffed, spooned, and leveled
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ¾ cup chopped pecans
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Line two baking sheets with parchment and set aside.
- Add butter, powdered sugar, cocoa powder, vanilla extract, and almond extract to a medium mixing bowl and beat with an electric hand mixer until fluffy, about 3-5 minutes.
- Add the salt and flour to the bowl, one cup at a time, and mix until combined and no more dry flour is visible. The dough will be crumbly.
- Add chopped pecans to the bowl and mix with the hand mixer on low speed until the pecans are evenly mixed into the dough.
- Using a cookie scoop, scoop balls of dough into the palm of your hand and form them into neat balls by rolling them in between both palms.
- Place cookies onto your prepared baking sheets, spaced evenly apart. They do not need much room as the cookies will not spread while baking. Bake cookies in the preheated oven for 7-10 minutes, or until the bottoms are slightly browned and the tops are no longer glossy.
- Once the cookies have cooled enough to handle, add 1 cup of powdered sugar to a medium bowl and roll the cookies in the sugar to completely coat each cookie. Transfer the cookies to a wire rack to cool completely.
- After the cookies have completely cooled I recommend rolling them in the powdered sugar once more.
Notes
- Use your free hand as a shield for the bowl when mixing the butter, powdered sugar, and cocoa to avoid a mess.
- The butter, sugar, and cocoa may seem it will not cream at first, but it will begin to get creamy after about a minute.
- These cookies can be stored at room temperature in a zip-top bag or storage container for up to five days.
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