Pecan Snowball Cookies

These buttery, nutty pecan snowball cookies are a classic family recipe made vegan and gluten free! They're soft, pillowy, rich, easy to make (just 5 ingredients) and so festive.

Snowball cookies (also known as Mexican Wedding Cookies, Russian Tea Cakes, butter balls, and a few other monikers) are traditionally made with (lots) of butter, pecans and powdered sugar.

The texture is somewhat similar to a shortbread cookie, but softer and more buttery. The cookies are rolled in powdered sugar, hence the name "snowball cookies", for perfectly a sweet, dainty (albeit messy) Christmas treat.

My mom grew up making these with her grandmother every Christmas – we still have her handwritten recipe card (though it's now marked with a few butter stains). This year, we decided to take on the challenge of making great grandma's classic recipe vegan and gluten free!

We hope you give them a try this holiday season. They're so perfect paired with a peppermint mocha!

Ingredients

• Vegan butter: a few brands we use in our recipes include Earth Balance (the soy free variety), Melt Organic and Country Crock Plant Butter. Note: let the butter soften at room temperature for about 15 minutes to make it easier to work with in this recipe.
• Powdered sugar: aka confectioners' sugar. This is what makes these cookies so light and fluffy. Be sure to sift it before adding to the dough, otherwise you'll end up with lumps.
• Vanilla extract: for extra flavor, you could sub ½ teaspoon of vanilla extract with almond extract.
• Gluten free all purpose flour: we suggest Bob's Red Mill Gluten Free 1:1 Baking Flour, which is what we use in all of our baking recipes. If you're not gluten free, you can sub with regular all purpose flour.
• Pecans: for extra flavor, you can toast the pecans before adding to these cookies.

Instructions

Here's how to make these vegan pecan snowball cookies in a few simple steps:

Combine wet ingredients: In a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment (or using an electric hand mixer), cream butter until light and fluffy (about 1 minute). Add sifted powdered sugar and continue mixing until incorporated. 

Add vanilla extract and cold water and mix until combined. 

Add dry ingredients: Slowly add in sifted flour in a few batches until fully incorporated, then add chopped pecans. 

Refrigerate dough: Cover bowl with a tea towel and refrigerate dough for 2 hours. These cookies are not meant to spread much in the oven, so this is an essential step to make sure they bake correctly.

Bake cookies: Using a 1 tablespoon cookie scoop, roll dough into evenly-sized balls. (They should be bite-sized and even – use your hands to roll into a smooth circle shape.)

Place cookies on a parchment paper-lined baking sheet. These cookies won't spread much, so you can put them pretty close together. Bake for 16-18 minutes at 325˚F in the middle rack of your oven. Remove from oven and let cool for 5 minutes. 

Roll in powdered sugar: Add about ⅔ cup powdered sugar to a medium-sized mixing bowl. Carefully transfer each cookie to the powdered sugar and roll until coated.

(Note: the cookies are fragile, so if you'd prefer, you can sift powdered sugar over each cookie instead of rolling them in sugar)

Recipe tips

• Don't over-bake! Unlike other cookies, snowball cookies are still very light in color when they're finished baking, so don't be tempted to leave them in for extra time, otherwise they will be hard and crunchy (versus soft and pillowy, which is what we're going for!).
• Keep these cookies small. The larger these cookies are, the more crumbly they are. Plus, they're pretty rich, so we prefer a smaller two or three-bite cookie.
• Not a fan of pecans? You can substitute pecans with walnuts, almonds, pistachios or cashews.
• Nut allergy? Leave out the pecans altogether, or substitute with mini chocolate chips.
• Not gluten free? Simply use regular all purpose flour instead of gluten free.

Storage

These vegan pecan snowball cookies will store nicely at room temperature (in an airtight container) for up to 5 days before they start to go stale.

Freezer storage: These cookies freeze best without the powdered sugar coating. Freeze the cooled cookies for up to 3 months, then let thaw to room temperature before coating in powdered sugar.

More vegan Christmas treats

• Double Chocolate Chip Peppermint Cookies
• Best Vegan Sugar Cookies
• Vegan Peppermint Patties
• Vegan Linzer Cookies
• Best Vegan Chocolate Chip Cookies
• Vegan Pecan Pie Bars

If you make these 5-ingredient vegan and gluten free pecan snowball cookies, we’d love for you to leave a comment and rating below! We also love to see your creations on Instagram – tag us at @crowded_kitchen so we can see what you’ve been cooking.

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