Snow Day! These are magic words. It means you get that bonus day off from school, and the day will be filled with sledding, snowmen, and snowball fights. I am a native Oregonian and Oregon is my home. Where I live, the snow day is a rare occurrence happening once every few years. When my kids were small, however, we lived for five years in Pennsylvania, and I don’t know if you are familiar with weather patterns in Northern PA, but I can tell you with certainty that it snows. We could have snow anytime between October and mid-May, and while most of the time life would go on as usual with roads plowed and treated, we had our fair share of snow days.
I know that my kids loved a snow day, but maybe not as much as I did. A snow day was a chance to take everything off the to do list and be present enjoying the day with my kids. We had nowhere to go, and all day to play. In addition to the sledding and snowball fights, hot chocolate and “snowball cookies” became a tradition for our snow days. There is something so comforting in coming inside after playing in the snow and being greeted with steaming cups of cocoa and some cookies.
This cookie is so simple, requires very few ingredients, and holds a special place in my heart. It is a Russian Tea Cake or a Mexican Wedding Cookie for some, and is usually made with nuts. While I love the versions with nuts, this adapted recipe for “Snowballs” was fun for the kids and made with chocolate chips. While snow days are not as common now that we are home in Oregon, the Snowball Cookie makes a regular appearance in our holiday cookie rotation, and it reminds me of our time in Pennsylvania, of my best friend, Beth, and her boys who would share snow days with us, and of time with my children when they were small and would come inside with pink cheeks, and get chocolate mustaches and sugar coated fingers while enjoying the treats.
I wish you all some snow days, and hope you will consider making up a batch of Snowball Cookies to celebrate.
Pro Tips:
These cookies are pretty simple- there’s not much to them, but I do have a few tips to share.
About a Tablespoon works for sizing. These cookies don’t spread in the oven, but they do grow so make the dough balls smaller than you want your finished cookie to turn out.
Most any chocolate chip works, but if you have mini chocolate chips, these are fun and work well in this cookie.
I use about 1 cup of additional powdered sugar to roll the cookies. Once the cookies have cooled I dust them with more powdered sugar to fill in spots where the sugar coating has come off.
Snowball Cookies
These super simple cookies can be made in very little time with very few ingredients.
- Prep Time: 15 minutes
- Cook Time: 10 minutes
- Total Time: 25 minutes
- Category: cookie
- Cuisine: desserts
Ingredients
1 cup softened butter
1/2 cup powdered sugar plus more for rolling
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
2 cups flour
1/2 cup chocolate chips
Instructions
Preheat the oven to 350 and line two cookie sheets with parchment.
Mix butter, powdered sugar and vanilla until fluffy. Add flour and salt and mix until the dough comes together. Add chocolate chips.
Scoop dough and roll into balls to place on the cookie sheet. Bake for approximately 10 minutes until set. Remove from oven and let set for a minute or two before placing cookies in a bowl with the additional powdered sugar, and roll each cookie in sugar until coated. Place on a rack to cool completely.
Notes
I use close to 1 cup of additional powdered sugar to roll the cookies. After the cookies cool, I give them an additional sprinkling of powdered sugar to make them look nice.
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