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One Badass Cookie — Snowball Cookies

• by Nancy, January 12, 2009

Here I am with my snowblower which refuses to start at the moment, and my reward for all the shoveling I had to do as a consequence — this week’s One Badass Cookie, my Great Aunt Dotty’s Snowball Cookies. There are certain desserts that my ex, a chef, and I used to refer to as “secret weapons.” These were the ones that we baked off in big batches and then froze to pull out on those days when we couldn’t stand eating another healthful thing. The snowball cookies fit in that category which made a lot of sense if you think about it since real snowballs are weapons too. Speaking of which, my eleven-year-old son got me smack on the ear with a big icy one last night. Mom didn’t have much of a sense of humor about it. The snowball cookies are great though, but if you want to make them, baker beware. They are proven irresistible. Once you start, you cannot, I repeat, cannot stop eating them. A cookie that comes with a warning — now that’s One Badass Cookie. Read on for the One Badass Cookie Tip of the Week, the recipe, and more photos of these sugar-frosted walnut packed gems.

One Badass Cookie Tip of the Week: As a general guideline, toast nuts that will be incorporated into a dough or batter, but leave nuts that garnish unbaked goods raw so they will not burn when put in the oven to bake. To toast most nuts, place them on a cookie sheet in a 350 degree oven until lightly browned and fragrant, about 5 - 10 minutes. Best rule of thumb to tell when they are perfectly done? Your nose. When they smell yummy, they’re ready.
Great Aunt Dotty’s Snowball Cookies
Makes about two dozen 1 1/2 inch diameter cookies.
1/2 lb. (2 sticks) sweet, unsalted butter
1/2 cup sugar
2 tsp vanilla extract
2 cups flour, sifted
2 cups chopped walnuts or pecans, toasted and cooled.
confectioner’s sugar, enough for dredging baked cookies.
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line cookie sheets with parchment paper or nonstick pads and set aside.
2. Cream butter and sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a paddle attachment or by hand.  Add vanilla extract.  Add flour all at once and mix only until incorporated then add nuts. Do not over mix the dough.
3. Pick up small pieces of dough and roll into balls.  Place on cookie sheet about an inch apart.
4. Bake for 10 minutes or more until light brown.  Remove from oven and while stilll warm roll in powdered sugar.


If you toast nuts on parchment paper covered sheetpans, it makes it easy to slide the nuts onto a wire rack to cool faster than on the hot sheetpan.


If the dough gets too soft to roll the balls, place it in the refrigerator for a while until it is firmer.


Warm and toasty looking, straight from the oven. Mmmmm.


Dredge the cookies in the powdered sugar right away while they are warm so it melts the sugar a little on the surface of the cookies and makes a soft, sweet crust.

Got a great cookie recipe for Nancy and Laura? Send it in to us using the “post a comment” links and we’ll test it. If it’s badass enough, we’ll post it as a reader’s recipe on One Badass Cookie and you’ll win a prize of Nancy’s book.

see also: One Badass Cookie - Chocolate Chip Cookies

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