Snowballs

These are also known as Russian teacakes, butter balls, and Spanish (Mexican) wedding cookies. Whatever you want to call them, just know they are mainly butter. Sounds healthy, right? To be honest, if you are eating cookies you probably aren't worried about the healthiness of the cookies.

These are a more recent addition to the Christmas baking frenzy. I think we found this recipe on a bag of Nestle Holiday Morsels. Where ever the recipe came from, it is delicious. The cookies are kind of dry but also melt in your mouth as you eat them. I recommend having a glass of milk on hand while consuming these.

Snowballs (Printer-friendly PDF Version)
1 1/2 C butter (softened)
3/4 C powdered sugar
1 t vanilla
1/4 t salt (only if butter is unsalted)
3 C flour
10 oz chocolate chips (more or less, up to you)
1/2 C finely chopped nuts (extremely optional)

Toss the butter, powdered sugar, and vanilla in a mixing bowl. Cream together very well.

Add the flour one cup at a time, mixing well after each addition. Add the chocolate chips and mix until evenly distributed. At this point, also add the nuts if you want to ruin the cookies. The dough will be heavy, thick, and not sticky.

Roll the dough into 1 inch balls. Place on a cookie sheet. These won't spread or change shape very much, so you can place them close together if you want. I, however, have the terrible habit of allowing no more than 12 cookies on a sheet.

Bake at 375 for 10 to 12 minutes. Don't over bake or they will be hard and dry. Under baking just makes them soft and crumbly. Let cool on a cooling rack.

Once the cookies are mostly cooled, place a few cookies into a container with 1/2 C powdered sugar. Close the container and gently shake. Tada! Powdered sugar covered cookies that look just like real snowballs. Maybe not, but we can pretend. Repeat this until all cookies are coated with powdered sugar.