These almond snowball cookies just melt in your mouth. They are perfect Christmas cookies and look like darling little snowballs. They remind me of these Russian Tea Cakes but these snowball cookies have more of a melting consistency. Get it? Melting? Hee hee.
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The almond paired with orange zest is a delicious and highly irresistible combination. Here’s the story behind these: I bought tons of almond meal/flour for the endless macaron testing that I did and had some leftover so I decided to try it in these snowball cookies. And WOW!!!
These are melt-in-your-mouth good and the best snowball cookies I’ve ever had!
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Can Snowball Cookies be Frozen?
This snowball cookie recipe freezes really well so they are a make-ahead cookie #SCORE!! Make them fully including powdered sugar and just dust with fresh powdered sugar once they are thawed and sitting on your cookie platter. They’ll taste just as good as the day you made them!
Ingredients for Snowball Cookies:
- We used store-bought almond meal/flour. The package should say either “Extra Fine Almond Meal” Or “Almond Flour”. You can make your own almond flour using blanched almonds.
- Use unsalted butter for this recipe.
- Do not skip the oranze zest. A little goes a long way in both flavor and aroma.
- For the cookies to form correctly, dry ingredients must be measured correctly.
How to make Snowball Cookies:
Preheat the oven to 400°F. Line 1 extra large (I LOVE that I can fit them all on this 3/4 size cookie sheet) or use 2 regular cookie sheets with parchment paper.
1. In the bowl of a stand mixer (highly recommend this mixer) fitted with the whisk attachment, cream together 2 sticks butter, 1/2 cup of powdered sugar and 1 tsp of vanilla, until smooth.
2. Switch to the paddle attachment and gradually mix in 2 cups all purpose flour and 1/2 tsp salt. Once well incorporated, add 1 cup almond meal and 1/2 Tbsp orange zest and mix until well incorporated.
The dough stuck slightly to the spatula but not at all to my hands. If very sticky, add 1-2 Tbsp more flour (I didn’t need to).
3. Shape dough into 1-inch balls (this small ice cream scoop made it so easy and exact!) and place them on prepared baking sheet 1 inch apart. You should get 38-40 cookies.
Don’t make them too large or they won’t bake through properly. Bake 11-13 min, or until bottoms are golden and edges are barely golden (I bake 11 min for softer cookies). Remove from baking sheet and let cool 5 minutes.
4. Fill a bowl with powdered sugar and roll the cookies in it while they are still warm (not hot, or they make the powdered sugar gummy). Transfer cookies to a wire rack to cool completely.
It’s best on a wire rack so the powder sugar doesn’t become moist but they will still be ok if they cool on the parchment paper.
5. Once cookies are at room temperature, roll in powdered sugar again or dust the tops with a mini sieve (here’s the one in my picture) to give them that snowy look.
Watch How to Make Snowball Cookies:
We love these tea cookies year round (not just for the holidays), but they sure are a treat and look beautiful on a Christmas cookie platter!
More Christmas Cookie Recipes:
- Russian Tea Cakes – crumbly, buttery perfection
- Shell Cookies – laced with meringue and walnuts
- Baklava – the ultimate holiday treat!
- Jeweled Biscotti – perfect for holiday gifting
- Angel Wing Cookies – Polish Chrusciki
Almond Snowball Cookies Recipe
Ingredients
- 1/2 lb unsalted butter, (16 Tbsp) softened at room temperature
- 1/2 cup powdered sugar , plus 1 1/2 cups more for rolling cookies
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 2 cups all-purpose flour, *measured correctly
- 1/2 tsp fine salt, I used fine sea salt
- 1 cup almond flour, or fine almond meal
- 1/2 Tbsp orange zest, from 1 medium orange
Instructions
Prep:
- Preheat the oven to 400°F. Line a 3/4 size cookie sheet or 2 regular cookie sheets with parchment paper.
How to Make Snowball Cookies:
- In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with whisk attachment, cream together 1/2 lb butter, 1/2 cup powdered sugar and 1 tsp vanilla, until smooth.
- Switch to paddle attachment and gradually mix in 2 cups all purpose flour and 1/2 tsp salt. Once incorporated, add 1 cup almond meal and 1/2 Tbsp orange zest and mix until well blended. The dough will stick slightly to the spatula but not to finger tips. If very sticky, add 1-2 Tbsp more flour.
- Shape dough into 1-inch balls (a small ice cream scoop makes it easy and exact). Place them on prepared baking sheet 1 inch apart. You should get 38-40 cookies. Don't make them too large or they won't bake through properly. Bake 11-13 min, or until bottoms are golden and edges are barely golden (I bake 11 min for softer cookies). Remove from baking sheet and cool 5 min.
- Fill a bowl with powdered sugar and roll the cookies in it while they are still warm (not hot). Transfer cookies to wire rack to cool completely.
- Once cookies are at room temp, roll in powdered sugar again or dust the tops with a mini sieve for a snowy look.
Notes
Nutrition Per Serving
Filed Under
If you make this recipe, I’d love to see pics of your creations on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter! Hashtag them #natashaskitchen
I hope you are having a Merry Christmas season. Is your tree up? Are you done shopping? Did you order Christmas cards? So many questions!! 🙂
Hi Natasha! I cannot wait to try these! Do you think it would be good if I did lemon zest instead of orange!?
Hello Callie, I think it can be substituted and still taste great. I don’t think they will taste lemony but there will be a hint of lemon 🙂
Wondering can the dough be frozen and baked later?
Hi Tammy, I’m not able to provide specifics but I think that could work. If adding the powdered sugar before freezing, I would freeze between layers of plastic wrap in a freezer-safe container.
Hi Natasha, I wanted to retract my comment. I think I just overbaked the cookies. They still tasted good, just like the rest of your recipes I tried. Thank you.
No problem! I hope you give it another try soon 🙂
I love your recipes and if I need a traditional Ukrainian dish, your site is the first I look at. I am sad to say that this cookie recipe was disappointing. My dough didn’t come together. I still was able to form little balls by hand though. The cookies were very crumbly while warm and turned into little pucks when cooled down. I guess they will be great dunking cookies.
Hi Gigi, that is usually due to using too much flour or almond flour. Make sure to measure correctly by spooning your ingredients into the measuring cup and then leveling off the top. Otherwise, if you push the measuring cup into the flour bin, you can get 25% too much compressed flour. I hope that helps!
Hi Natasha! Let me just say that we love your recipes and my 3yr old son can’t get enough of your videos! I’d like to make this but we don’t have a stand mixer. Any suggestions on how to go about this? Thanks!
Thank you, Brenda. In my video, I used an electric hand mixer and it worked great also.
Cookies sound delish. Can the batter be rolled out for Christmas cookie cutting you think?
Hi Luk, I haven’t tested that rolled and then cut into Christmas cookies. If you experiment, let me know how you liked the recipe.
Hey Natasha, I made these cookies today and the process was easy and followed all ingredients, I added some crushed walnuts. The cookies came out very crumble is that the way they are supposed to be or did I do something wrong??
Hi Irina, adding the crushed walnuts could make it more crumbly and make it harder for them to stay together.
Hi There
I love many of your creations
Please advise on gluten free or no white flour
can i swap out in cookies for rice flour or coconut flour
Thank you, Christeen. I haven’t tested that so I can’t say for sure but I think it should work. I don’t have much experience with gluten-free flours but I would suggest using a gluten-free flour that is intended for baking.
I am definitely going to add these to my Thanksgiving and Xmas cookie trays.
The perfect treat during the holidays! I hope you love these cookies, Willa!
I calculated the amount of salt in my butter. Its way more than 0.5 tsp for 16 tbsp of butter. I don’t have access to unsalted butter. What do you suggest I do?
Hi, I would definitely omit the salt and just use what you have on hand. 2 sticks of salted butter typically have 3/4 tsp salt. I think that should still be ok although you may be able to taste the salt slightly more.
I make these often with salted butter i just omit the salt, they turn out great!
Is it possible to use only almond flour for a gluten-free cookie?
Hi Shirley, I haven’t tested that so I can’t say for sure but I think it should work. I don’t have much experience with gluten-free flours but I would suggest using a gluten-free flour that is intended for baking.
Hello Natasha,
Do you think I can make it vegan by using coconut oil instead of butter?
Hi Ayrin, I looked through the comments but I couldn’t find anyone trying this to advise. If you experiment please let me know how you like that.
Yes I did try.. it turned out great. Instead of 16 tbsp of butter I had to add 18 tbsp of coconut oil and add some more almond milk to get that consistency. Then followed the same baking instructions. Thank you!!
I love cookies that are made with almond, lemon etc… But will this almond snowball cookies have an almond taste to it? And can the vanilla extract be substituted for almond extract? BTW I just love all your recipes!!
Hi Anna, they do taste like almond and I think that would work fine to substitute for almond extract if you wanted to amplify the almond flavor even more.
Having a bad day but your smiling face & recipes are lifting me off the “pity couch” and bake Thank you !
I’m so glad to hear that our videos lift your spirit and inspire you. That’s so awesome!
Thank you Natasha for sharing. I made this cookies the first time for a gift to few friends and they’re all love it and asking for your recipe. It’s so delicious and light and it does melt in your mouth. I’m just wondering how long does these cookies last once baked.
Thank you again lovely Natasha
So happy to know that, Cassie! It’s very heartwarming to know that they loved my recipe. Properly stored, freshly baked cookies will last for about 2 to 3 weeks at normal room temperature.
Hi Natasha!! I know it’s not Xmas but I wanted to use up some Almonds. So First port of call Natasha’s blog. Anyhow I had no ground almonds only flakes so I blitzed them. Mixed everything up and made these. Taste Devine, however you just have to look at them and they crumble, can’t pick them up as a cookie. The orange tang is amazing, great addition but What did I do wrong to make them toooooo light? Hope you can help & keep up the great work!
Hi Tina, the two things that come to mind are – possibly adding too much almond flour – if it is compacted in the measuring cup it will throw off the wet to dry ingredients and the mixture might end up crumbly, or it could be that possibly the almonds were not ground finely enough.
These look so cute and delicious! Thanks for sharing!
You’re welcome! I’m so glad you liked that.
I made these snowball cookies during Christmas, they were delicious & the orange flavor was great. The only problem was at 9 mins they were not done, by 11 mins the bottoms were dark brown and burned. I think the trick is to lift the cookies and see the color on the bottom for doneness and not the tops. I scraped the bottoms with a table knife after cooling for 5 mins then coated in powder sugar. The next two rounds I baked them only 10-11 for mins.
Hi Sha, I’m wondering if your oven is possibly not calibrated? I’m more than happy to troubleshoot.
How big were your dough balls? I purchased the scoop that Natasha recommended. I get 44 balls per batch. I have a basic older model GE electric oven and my cookies are done in 7 minutes. The bottoms are brown not burnt.
These cookies are a hit! Made a batch for Christmas and just made another for New Year’s Eve. Melt in your mouth delicious and the orange vest gives it that extra flavour. Your recipes are perfect every time!
That’s just awesome!! Thank you for sharing your wonderful review, Irene! Happy New Year!
All of the cookies burned at 12 minutes. Could be our oven, but we followed the recipe and instructions to a T.
Hi Adam, it sounds like maybe you were using a convection oven which does bake the cookies quite a bit faster than a conventional oven. I’ve never had that experience. You might consider testing your oven temperature with an oven thermometer – that would be a bummer if it happened to other baking recipes also due to temps being off.
Excellent cookies!
I’m so glad you enjoyed that!