Easy Pecan Snowball Cookies with Chocolate Chips

Easy pecan snowball cookies with chocolate chips are the classic shortbread Christmas dessert you remember from your childhood. Make candied pecans on stove and dice to add nuts to make this buttery treat from scratch.

Buttery Pecan Snowball Cookies

Have you tried this version of homemade shortbread cookies yet?? Or maybe you’re looking for a new and easy Christmas cookie to bake this year. This might be the one! I made it an easier way where there wasn’t as much prep involved so the kids could help and enjoy the process more. You can instead roll into balls if you’d prefer.

It’s one thing I’ve tried to incorporate with my girls because it is part of my childhood memories growing up. These and our lebkuchen cookies are a must every year. 

Do you do a lot of baking simple chocolate chip cookies and other goodies during the holidays? These are a nice tweak on an original old classic right? Now if you buy these nuts I know they aren’t super cheap but can be made at home or used in other dishes too we will share later. Ingredients you will need:

Pecan Snowball Cookies Ingredients

1. Room temperature butter
2. Flour and pecans
   1. buy an extra bag to make our pecan shortbread bars too
3. Vanilla 
4. Salt
5. Powdered sugar
6. Baking sheet with parchment paper
7. Gifting tins

What can you add

There are lots of things you can chop up fine and add into these to make them better. You do want to make sure what you incorporate is small and you do so at the end folded inside gently. Overmixing will cause them to not be as fluffy so just enough.

• Chopped pecans or use nuts of your choice
• Finely chopped almonds would work
• Chocolate chips

Remember to measure flour properly so they don’t come out dense. If not measured right they will not poof up as you’d like. Either way the texture is more dense than others like butter or sugar cookies but measuring correctly is vital for their success.

Here are a few questions you might have as you go along:

Why do my snowball cookies go flat?

You either didn’t use powdered sugar, or refrigerate them before baking. Both keep them from spreading out like traditional cookies. The easiest way to prevent this is to wrap the dough in plastic wrap or cover the top inside your mixing bowl and leave in the fridge for 1 hour.

That is really it! They are very simple with only a few items needed which I love. The texture is dense like a shortbread cookie, buttery like those too.

Things you need

• You just need a bowl and spoon to mix the butter and sugar ingredients. You can use a mixer to cream them together too. Just 10 minutes of baking is all you need. You just want a very light brown on the top, then remove from oven.
• Your hands come in handy after that to shape them.
• I suppose you could need a food processor to chop the nuts but I typically buy them already crushed. At the end you’ll just need to ensure that all the flour is mixed in well. 
• Roll them into small balls and place them on a baking sheet. Mine are already non stick so no spray is needed. These won’t spread much at all so you can really load up your tray.
• If you really don’t want them to spread at all put your dough into the fridge for an hour first.

Wait until they’re cooled completely on your cookie sheet or cooling rack (at least 15 minutes). Sprinkle or roll in powdered sugar so they look more like snowballs. Then enjoy. They’re a melt in your mouth flaky consistency and 1 with a cup of coffee is perfect.

How long does it take to make snowball cookies?

I’ve heard others call these Russian tea cakes Mexican style too. I suppose you could call them what you like but during my Merry Christmas days they were snowballs.  Start to finish they’re done in about 30 minutes (if you skip chilling time) which is great.

Then you can move on to other treats you might want to try like our Pumpkin Pecan Pie Recipe using that same nut! My memories are of baking a ton of varieties, filling tins with all of them, and sharing them with relatives and neighbors. Try them and let us know what you think of them below in the comments!

How to Make the Best Snowball Cookies Ever

• Preheat your oven to 375 degrees. In one bowl beat your butter, sugar, vanilla and salt together until creamy.
• Gradually add in the flour until it is well incorporated. Then gently fold in your added ingredients like crushed nuts and/or chocolate chips.
• Cover tight and refrigerate for 1 hour.
• On a cookie sheet put balls that are about 1-1.5″ size, about the size of a golf ball. Leave some space in between them.
• Bake for 10-12 minutes or until they are set and very lightly browned on the top. Remove and sift powdered sugar over them when they’re still warm.

Leave on cookie sheet until cool, then remove and sprinkle more powdered sugar on top.

Other easy cookie recipes

• Our Christmas tree sugar cookies are super simple but delicious
• You can make a chocolate chip cookie in a mug this year
• Fruitcake cookies or try our Grandmas fruitcake recipe here.
• Brownie mix crinkle cookies use boxed mix so they take little prep

Our cake mix crinkle cookies are so fun to make with your kids Below is the recipe for tea cakes Mexican wedding (another name for them) is below along with the nutritional facts. Here’s a quick step by step but there’s a printable recipe card below too.