Description
These gluten-free snowball cookies go by many names–Mexican Wedding Cookies, Russian Tea Cookies & Snowball Cookies. But whatever you call them, they’re delicious!
Ingredients
Scale
For The Cookie Dough:
- 1 cup butter (2 sticks/226 grams)*
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1/2 cup powdered sugar (60 grams)
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1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
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1/4 teaspoon almond extract (optional)
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2 cups gluten-free measure-for-measure flour (240 grams)
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2 Tablespoons cornstarch (16 grams)
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1/2 teaspoon salt (kosher salt–use less if using fine table salt!)
-
3/4 cup chopped pecans*
To Coat The Cookies:
- 3/4 cup powdered sugar (90 grams), for rolling (or more, if needed)
Instructions
- Preheat Oven & Prep. Start by preheating the oven to 400 degrees F. Set out two cookie sheets and line with parchment paper.
- Cream Butter, Sugar, Vanilla & Almond. In a large bowl, or the bowl of a stand mixer, cream softened butter, 1/2 cup powdered sugar, and the vanilla and almond extracts on medium speed 2-3 minutes, or until creamy and smooth.
- Add Flour, Pecans, Cornstarch, and Salt and gently mix on low speed until just combined and the dough starts to come together.
- Scoop & Roll. Use a small cookie scoop to measure 1 Tablespoon balls of cookie dough. Smooth each ball of dough out between your hands and place 9-12 cookie dough balls on a baking sheet. (Leave the rest of the dough to rest at room temperature)
- Bake Cookies 9-11 minutes, or until the bottoms just turn golden brown and the tops of the cookies have just started to crack. Let the cookies cool 3-4 minutes on the baking sheet before transferring to a wire rack to finish cooling. Repeat this baking process until all cookies are baked and cooled, alternating baking sheets with each batch so you don’t put cool cookie dough on a hot baking sheet.
- Roll In Powdered Sugar. When the cookies are cooled, gently roll each cookie in powdered sugar to coat well. (I do this one cookie at a time, and fluff the sugar up after every few cookies) Repeat until all cookies are coated in powdered sugar.
- Serve & Store. Enjoy cookies right away or store in an airtight container at room temperature 2-3 days. To freeze, store cookies in a single layer in a freezer container up to 2 months. (You can also freeze the cookies once they’re cooled but before you toss them in powdered sugar. Let the cookies thaw, then roll in powdered sugar before serving.)
Notes
- Butter. Salted butter or unsalted butter works here, though salted is my preference for this recipe! The butter should be COOL room temperature and just make an indent with your finger when pressed. If it’s shiny or greasy, it’s too soft and the cookies will not have the same texture.
- Gluten-Free Flour. We highly recommend King Arthur Measure-For-Measure Gluten-Free Flour. If you use another brand, like Bob’s Red Mill, just be sure your flour blend contains xanthan gum or the cookies will not turn out properly. Do not substitute almond flour, coconut flour, or oat flour here.
- Chopped Pecans. Since these cookies have a delicate texture, you want the pecans to be fairly finely chopped. I prefer to do this by hand so I can keep a close eye on the texture, but you can also pulse them in a food processor a few times, if you prefer. Remember you want small pieces, not flour!
- Other Nuts. Don’t have or like pecans? Try swapping them for hazelnuts (amazing!), almonds, walnuts or even pistachios!
- Prep Time: 30 minutes
- Cook Time: 45 minutes
- Category: Dessert
- Method: Oven
- Cuisine: American
