Anns Bakery in Kottayam will always remind me of their cashew snowball cookies which I used to eat by the packet when I was a kid. They were not cheap (nothing from Anns is cheap) but when we buy them at home, I would gobble them up. Snowball cookies form a delicious part of my childhood memories.
I knew I would bake them one day and I knew it would be when I was feeling particularly homesick, and that’s exactly what happened. I was compiling this list of Christmas Recipes from Kerala and felt like I had to have some cookies – and they had to be snowball cookies!
I used pecans, one of my favourites, in the cookies. You can substitute with walnuts (I am not a fan of them) or cashew nuts. Anns uses cashew nuts so for more “authentic snowball cookies”, try this recipe with cashew nuts, lightly roasted. And yes, these are eggless too, perfect for Christmas!
Eggless Snowball Cookies
Prep time: 10 mins
Baking time: 30 mins
Makes 24 cookies
Ingredients:
1 cup all purpose flour / maida
3/4 cup chopped pecans (or any nut of your choice)
1/2 cup butter, at room temperature
3 tbsp sugar
1/8 tsp salt
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 cup icing sugar, for coating and dusting (can substitute with powdered sugar too)
How I Made It:
0. Pre-heat oven to 300F or ~ 160C
1. Mix the flour, sugar, chopped nuts, and salt in a mixing bowl.
2. Add the softened butter and vanilla…
… and knead lightly with fingertips until the dough comes together and there are no signs of the flour showing.
3. Pinch off a little dough at a time and make into small lime-sized ball. I got 24 cookies from this amount of dough.
4. Place them 2″ apart on a lined baking tray and bake until uniformly browned, about 25-30 mins. If you feel they are a bit uncooked, bake for 2-3 more mins but not more than 35 mins.
5. When still warm, roll in icing sugar until well coated, let them cool, and store in an air-tight container for up to a week.
These are very easy and eggless cookies you can bake for Christmas and give away to people. The pecans give it a lovely flavour although I’d love to try the cashew nut version of snowball cookies they have in Anns.
They are a bit chewy with some crunch from the nuts. It’s a good idea to lightly toast them before use but I used these pecans right out of the bag. The cookies themselves are not too sweet so be generous when dusting with the powdered / icing sugar.
Note that I use unbleached flour for my baking so the cookies are a bit darker than they would be if you use regular plain flour.
So, what are you baking this Christmas? 🙂
lalitha says
March 22, 2013 at 10:59 amHi Nags!
I have been following you blog for a long time and have tried many of your recipes (carrot cake to no bake brownies to pull apart rolls to banarasi dum aaloo) and have been recieving compliments from all around. The snowball cookies turned out absolutely great and the kids loved them. Now they are demanding homemade fruit biscuits & chand biscuits (in the Karachi Bakery style). Please help me out here.
regards
lalitha
Shamsa Habib says
January 9, 2013 at 4:51 amHi i would like to know if these cookies melt in your mouth as i recall i used to eat snowball cookies my friend made for me would melt in the mouth.
Sam.
Shamsa Habib says
January 9, 2013 at 4:47 amDo these cookies melt in your mouth, i had snowball cookies before and i lost the recipe.
Sam
Sminu Mary says
August 17, 2012 at 9:47 pmhey.. i tried this recipe… it came out well.. so easy to make.. 🙂
very nice selection of recipes in this blog.. love it
keep cooking. 🙂
Anonymous says
June 3, 2012 at 9:38 amSo sweet yummy!!!!!!!
Anonymous says
January 9, 2012 at 1:02 amThank you very much for this awesome recipe. I've been lurking for quite some time on your blog and these snowball cookies were really hard to resist.
Just finished making them and had to tell you how awesome they are.
Thanks again 🙂
Arathi
Katie says
December 22, 2011 at 9:05 pmI made these following your recipe, except with chocolate chips. They were lovely, and very much enjoyed by my family. Great recipe, will definitely be making them again.
I have a few pics on my blog
http://faithlessmusing.blogspot.com/
Amy says
December 10, 2011 at 5:10 amThese look perfect for the Holidays. 🙂 I'm going to make some and package them for gift-giving. Thanks for sharing.
Swapna says
December 9, 2011 at 1:16 pmThese are my favorite too… But two things I still buy from Anns are their Caramel Tarts and white halwa :)… Your cookies came out perfectly!
Nags says
December 9, 2011 at 12:56 amyes i have heard these are also called mexican wedding cookies or russian wedding cookies. even melting moments are wedding cookies i think 🙂 hope you try the snowball cookies! 🙂
Ann Thottam says
December 8, 2011 at 8:28 pmThese are my favorite cookies! I know them as Mexican Wedding Cookies (you can also find them under recipes for Russian Wedding cookies, funny enough!). I always make a batch for Christmas time.
anishathefoodie says
December 8, 2011 at 6:56 pmWow the cookies look really cute Nags so christmasy. I remember Anns with the most fond memories their pastries and black halwa esp. It is still a must visit every time I go home.
divya says
December 8, 2011 at 3:45 pmDrooling here……awesome recipe
Spandana says
December 8, 2011 at 11:15 amI love the snowballs.. it looks simple to make…
They look perfect for the Christmas!!
Vidhya says
December 8, 2011 at 3:50 amso beautiful – i love the eggless version though !
Nags says
December 8, 2011 at 2:08 amThese cookies are chewy and crumbly
Divya Vikram says
December 8, 2011 at 12:36 amHavent tasted snowball cookies but these sure look delicious with all that sugar on top!
Madhavi says
December 7, 2011 at 9:30 pmGreattt snowball cookies :))
http://vegetarianmedley.blogspot.com/
Reshmi Mahesh says
December 7, 2011 at 8:22 pmThese cookies looks perfect and tempting…
gayathre says
December 7, 2011 at 8:17 pmHi Nags,
Thanks for the nice and simple recipe!
At what temperature should we bake them?
Nagalakshmi V says
January 12, 2012 at 11:12 amBake at 300F / 160C
Marilyn says
December 7, 2011 at 6:57 pmThese look great. Are they soft, crumbly, etc?
Jyoti says
December 7, 2011 at 6:12 pmPerfect festive cookies!
Shema George says
December 7, 2011 at 3:18 pmthese cookies look perfect !
LifeScoops
Priti says
December 7, 2011 at 2:56 pmSo cute and wish I can see snow here like those in your cookie !!
Nags says
December 7, 2011 at 2:39 pmYes thats a silicon mat, silpat
Zareena says
December 7, 2011 at 1:39 pmThese look lovely. I never tried these before. This looks so easy, bookmarked this. One query Nagalakshmi, is that a silicon mat on which you kept the dough balls before baking? I just wanted to know.
Aarthi says
December 7, 2011 at 1:19 pmwow..i have tasted this..we call this as maida biscuit here..I love it a lot..will surely try it..
PriyaVaasu says
December 7, 2011 at 12:22 pmCute Looking Cookies!!! Double Happy to see them eggless, bookmarking them!!!!!!
Kadhyaa says
December 7, 2011 at 11:31 amthats such lovely cooking cokkies..simple and yummy 🙂
Arch says
December 7, 2011 at 11:11 amThese look really cute, seem pretty simple…I am planning on making that Christmas cake from the link you posted…
sathiarani says
December 7, 2011 at 11:00 ammade them recently for divali…there are easy to make and yummy….
Priya says
December 7, 2011 at 10:53 amThose cookies looks extremely cute and quite addictive..
Sharmilee! :) says
December 7, 2011 at 9:55 amSounds quick and easy too…Yummy looking cookies perfect for the occassion
RAKS KITCHEN says
December 7, 2011 at 9:20 amSounds too good and easy! Loved it!
chinmayie says
December 7, 2011 at 9:10 amYummy! I can totally understand why you had these by the packet 🙂
I am already baking far too many cookies this December but this one deserves to be tried 🙂
Nags says
December 7, 2011 at 9:05 amSnowball cookies are probably the easiest things you will bake 🙂 Try them! It definitely helps that they are eggless!
PJ says
February 27, 2012 at 2:25 pmHi Nags, I finally made these cookies and as u rightly said, its so easy!I have just posted it in my blog. Thanks for the recipe 🙂
PJ says
December 7, 2011 at 9:01 amI have never tasted these cookies but your post is really tempting me to try them out. The eggless version sounds just right for me. Am definitely baking these and will be back to share our experience :). Thanks for the awesome recipe….