Pecan and Cranberry Snowball Cookies are buttery, melt-in-your-mouth treats perfect for the winter holidays, made with chopped pecans and dried cranberries for a festive twist!
Holiday Cookies from My Childhood
When I was growing up, my mother used to make a batch of snowball cookies ( aka Russian Tea Cakes or Mexican Wedding Cookies) during Christmas. I love these buttery, sweet treats and get a dose of nostalgia every time I taste them! This recipe is a spin of my mother’s. She always made her cookies with pecans, but I love variety so I incorporated half of the dough with pecans and the other half with dried cranberries.
Snowball Cookie Ingredients
- Unsalted butter
- Powdered sugar and more for rolling
- Vanilla extract
- APF
- Salt
- Toasted chopped pecans – You can also use walnuts or almonds if you prefer.
- Chopped dried cranberries – Dried cherries or dried oranges are also delicious alternatives!
How to Make Pecan and Cranberry Snowball Cookies
- Cream butter and sugar with an electric mixer or stand alone mixer until fluffy and add vanilla extract to the mixture.
- Gradually add flour to the bowl and mix until well combined.
- Combine half of the dough with chopped pecans and the remaining half with chopped dried cranberries.
- Wrap each dough in plastic wrap, form it into a disk, and chill the dough for 1-24 hours in the fridge.
- Scoop one tablespoon dough and roll into a ball.
- Space them apart on a baking sheet and bake for 13-15 minutes in a 350 degree oven or until cookie bottoms start to turn light golden brown.
- Once they are done, let cookies cool for 10 minutes, then coat cookies with powdered sugar.
- Let cookies cool completely then coat cookies in more powdered sugar.
Serving Pecan and Cranberry Snowball Cookies
These delicious melty cookies are perfect with hot cup of tea, coffee or even with mulled wine! Showcase them in a pretty holiday themed bowl like this Holly and Ivy piece from Portmeirion. Portmeirion is a British pottery company founded in 1960, and famous for their Botanic Garden tableware collection. This particular piece, divided vegetable bowl is a discontinued piece but I do see few pieces from time to time on platforms like Etsy, Replacements or ebay.
These treats are absolutely perfect for holiday get-togethers and I guarantee these cookies will be gone quickly!
More Delicious Holiday Sweets
- Holiday Thumbprint Cookies
- Pain d’ Epices
- Charming Molded Walnut Cookies
- Orange and Currant Loaf Cake
- Whole Wheat Orange Muffins
Pecan and Cranberry Snowball Cookies
Ingredients
- 1 cup unsalted butter
- ½ cup powdered sugar and more for rolling
- ½ tsp vanilla extract
- 2 cups all purpose flour
- ½ tsp salt
- ¼ cup chopped toasted pecans
- ½ cup chopped dried cranberries
Instructions
- Combine flour and salt in a small bowl and set aside.
- In a mixing bowl, cream butter and sugar with an electric mixer or stand alone mixer until fluffy and add vanilla extract to the mixture.
- Gradually add flour to the bowl and mix until well combined. Divide the dough in half and transfer ½ of the dough onto a plate and set it aside. Add pecans to the remaining dough in the mixing bowl and mix well.
- Wrap pecan cookie dough with plastic wrap and form into a disk. Next, transfer the plain dough back to the mixing bowl, add cranberries and mix well. Wrap cranberry cookie dough with plastic wrap and form into a disk. Chill both dough disks for 1-24 hours in the fridge.
- Line baking sheets with parchment paper and take the dough out of fridge. If the dough is too hard, leave on the counter for 10-15 minutes so the dough can soften.
- Preheat oven to 350°. Scoop one tablespoon dough and roll into a ball. Space them apart on a baking sheet and bake for 13-15 minutes or until cookie bottoms start to turn light golden brown.
- Once cookies are done, let cool for 10 minutes, then coat with powdered sugar. Let cookies cool completely then coat with more powdered sugar.