Classic Snowball Cookies

Hi Bold Bakers! To celebrate the release of my brand new Bigger Bolder Baking 7 piece bakeware set that you can buy on my website right now, I'm gonna share with you one of my favorite holiday recipes. It is for classic snowball cookies. I absolutely love these cookies so let's just get stuck into the recipe. Into a large bowl we're going to add in our room temperature butter, sugar, vanilla extract, and some salt. And then with a whisk just cream all these ingredients together. The majority of my cookie doughs you actually mix by hand and if you go over to my holiday baking headquarters I've got tons of holiday cookies over there and they're all really easy doughs. But all you want to do is simply just cream it, get it nice and light and fluffy, it takes around 2-3 minutes. And a little bit of elbow grease. Ok perfect this is looking great, now into this I'm going to add in my flour. So this is looking great, I'm gonna use a spatula now and in two batches I'm gonna fold in my flour. So next we're gonna fold in our grounded nuts. Now what you want to do is measure 2 cups of nuts and then grind that. I use pecans because they're a lovely holiday flavor and they're kind of nutty and buttery. You can use walnuts, hazelnuts, almonds are really good, whatever you like. But this is one thing I like to do, toast your nuts before you grind them. The flavor is so much better and it really makes all the difference to your cookies. Ok once your nuts are in there, just fold it all together until you have your dough. And that's it, that's how simple this dough is to make and it literally took me 5 minutes. So what I like to do with all of my cookie doughs, I know I've said this a lot, pop it into the fridge, let it chill, maybe around 45 minutes or so, it doesn't take that long and then it's ready to scoop. So our dough has been chilled, now it's time to shape it and get it onto the tray. So I'm excited to be using my brand new cookie sheet. All the pieces in my set are made from carbon steel for even baking and long lasting durability. Also if you pick it up it's got really good weight to it which means it's good quality and then also Bigger Bolder Baking logo in the corner which means this is your special set just for you. So we're gonna line our lovely new tray with some parchment paper and here I have a tablespoon scoop. I like to use kind of a big generous scoop, so something a little bit over the top and then just get it into your hand, shape it into a ball, and then onto your baking sheet. Now don't press it down, don't do anything, just leave it be. And continue doing that with the rest of your dough. Into your hand, shape it, onto your tray. So these cookies don't spread that much during the baking process so you don't have to give them too much space in between. And in case you're wondering how are these snowball cookies, you have to wait until they come out of the oven and that's when we're gonna do that part. So the holidays are busy times so if you want to make some cookie doughs, any of my holiday cookie recipes actually, and keep them in the fridge, they'll last in there for up to 5 days. And then you can just bake them off when people drop in for a cup of tea or anything like that. And also you can freeze them, they freeze really well. So there you go, this cookie dough will make around 25 cookies or so. And make sure that you don't flatten them down because you want them to be that nice round shape. But for right now, these guys are ready to go into the oven. Bake your cookies off at 350°F or 180°C for roughly 14-15 minutes. Now you want to make sure that you lightly bake these guys because you want them to be really lovely soft cookies at the end. So it's been 15 minutes, our cookies are out of the oven and they look fantastic. Now you'll notice that they don't get a golden brown like most other cookies do but this is exactly what we want. You want no color on top and then just a little bit of brown underneath. So here's the secret with these guys, you want to pop them in powdered sugar while they're still warm because it creates a kind of a coating on them. So now since they're just out of the oven, I've got a bowl of powdered sugar here and I'm just going to toss each one generously in powdered sugar and then place it back onto the tray. Now you do it while they're still warm because it kind of soaks and creates this kind of a shell. I don't know if I'm the only one that thinks this but with the powdered sugar coating it almost tastes like white chocolate to me, it's really delicious, it's one of the reasons why I love these cookies. So nice big coating all over. Now we're just gonna let these cool down for maybe another 10-15 minutes or so and then we're gonna go again with the powdered sugar. So when you go again with your second layer of powdered sugar, make sure the cookies are completely cold at this stage just so that the powder will stick to it. So these cookies will last at room temperature for around 4 days and like I said you can always freeze the dough, but if you're like me and can't wait 5 minutes, then just go for it. There's something so simple about this cookie, like you saw it's very few ingredients, really easy technique, hands down one of my favorite holiday cookies. It's soft, it's crumbly, it's nutty, it's buttery, and I was a little bit extra generous with the vanilla and the salt which I think is key with these cookies because it just takes the flavor to another level. Without a doubt these are gonna be a holiday hit. Head over to my website for more information about my bakeware set and you can order it right now and have it delivered before Christmas, it is the perfect holiday gift. I'll see you back here really soon for more Bigger Bolder Baking.