All content copyright Katrina Hall 2008 through 2025

Monday, December 17, 2012

On the 8th day of Christmas: snowball cookies!






We have snow!  And ice, just for fun (not).  Just a few inches, but enough to make the roads slippery and to feel a little more like Christmas as I made snowball cookies.  I got this recipe years ago from a Swedish friend - she called them Russian Tea cookies, but when I googled them, I found they are also known as Swedish Tea cookies, as well as snowballs.  Delicious and buttery, and fun to make.  When I first made them, I made them a little too big - now I try to make them somewhere between a small marble and the bigger ones.

Swedish Tea cookies:

I always toast the walnuts (or you can use pecans as well) in a toaster oven for a few minutes to bring out the flavor of the walnuts.  If you do that first thing, they will be cooled in ten minutes and ready to be chopped in the food processor without clumping.

2 sticks unsalted butter, room temperature
1/2 c. confectioner's sugar (powdered sugar)
1 t. vanilla
2 1/4 cups King Arthur flour
1/4 t. kosher salt
3/4 cup walnuts, toasted and finely chopped
1/4 t. nutmeg
More powdered sugar for rolling and dusting the cookies.

Preheat oven to 375F.
Line two baking sheets with clean foil and set aside.

Cream the butter well, then add the confectioner's sugar, the vanilla, salt, and nutmeg.  Add the flour and mix well, then add the cooled, chopped walnuts.  Mix until somewhat lumpy .  Remove beater and squeeze the dough into a ball.

Pinch off small pieces of dough and roll into marble size pieces, place on baking sheet as you work, about 2 inches apart - they don't spread much. 

Place the first filled baking sheet on the upper third shelf of the oven, and bake for 14 minutes.  Remove to a cooling rack and place the second batch in the oven, again, for 14 minutes.  Remove cookies from baking sheet and roll in a cup or so of confectioner's sugar, using a spoon to turn them.  Set on platters as they are sugared.

Just before serving, sprinkle the cookies with a little snowfall of confectioner's sugar ( about 1/2 cup) placed in a very fine strainer and shaken over the platter.  You can also do this to tidy up a platter if too many little fingers have been poking them.

10 comments:

La Table De Nana said...

Same here..weather wise and more expected~
These..look..BONS!

katrina said...

Oh, pooh, Madame Nana - freezing rain - not snow:( Just checked the weather *sigh*

Delighted you enjoyed the snowballs!

diary of a tomato said...

Like Prout's madeleines, these, more than any other, remind me of Christmas! Always homemade, we also called them snowball cookies, and they seemed so exotic to us, having little experience with real snow...

Farmgirl Susan said...

Your cookies are beautiful! The perfect choice for a snowy day. I LOVE that gorgeous tray. I also love when cookies or other foods have various names - when I was first introduced to these cookies, they were as Mexican Wedding Cakes or Mexican Wedding Cookies, I don't remember.

They have that unique melt in your mouth quality I've never found in any other cookie. I'm not a fan of walnuts or pecans so I almost never make them but I should since everybody else loves them, and, unlike most everything else I bake, I wouldn't be tempted to gobble them up. ;)

Am loving your days of Christmas series. Your cherished collection of ornaments and the stories behind them are wonderful! xoxo

katrina said...

Dear Diary - now I'm wondering where you grew up!

katrina said...

Hey Miz Susan! Isn't that tray a beautiful? A friend in the vintage business gave it to me, and I do cherish it. I'm surprised you don't like walnuts done this way, because they're so finely ground you hardly notice them in that buttery ball. Thank you, and delighted you're enjoying my ornaments, much diminished these days after years of cats, children, and dogs with waggy tails:) I'd love to see yours!

donna c. said...

Kat, I haven't made these in ages! They are beautiful. I know them as Mexican Wedding Cookies but maybe that's because I live near the border. Haha. They're great no matter what they are called.

katrina said...

Well, get going, Madame Donna! Soooo easy to make, I'm surprised you haven't made them - but I know what you mean. Time flies, we try new recipes, and sometimes forget those old favorites. Everyone loves these, don't they? Merci for swinging by, as always.

kellypea said...

Yay for snow! I have to live vicariously through you to get my fix each year. Gorgeous cookies -- love nuts and powdered sugar.

katrina said...

You're so funny, Kelly! You'll be as sick of it by March as we will be - and you'll keep me sane by posting your gorgeous seaside picnics in January! These cookies are so melt-in-your-mouth ( as Farmgirl says), they always surprise me.