Walnut Snowball Cookies

Good evening lovelies! Today at work, I ended up making these delicious confectioner's sugar covered cookies. Our client (and dear friend) called them Mexican Wedding Cookies, but I've always referred to them as snowballs. Either way, they are absolutely delicious, buttery, sugary, just yum. There's really no other way to describe them. I can only think to warn that these cookies are extremely messy. The powdered sugar gets everywhere, and that's no exaggeration.

Now I'm super excited to get started on these cookies. I'll meet y'all in the kitchen!

☃On the tenth day of Christmas recipes, your hostess gave to you☃

Walnut Snowball Cookies

Yields 3.5 Dozen Cookies

You will need:

• 1.5 cups walnuts
• 2 sticks unsalted butter, at room temperature
• 1/2 vanilla bean, split and seeds scraped
• 2 cups confectioner's sugar
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 2 cups all-purpose flour

Ready?

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. 
2. Line 2 large cookie sheets with parchment paper. 
3. Spread the walnuts on a rimmed baking sheet and bake for about 8 minutes, until golden brown. 
4. Let cool, then coarsely chop. 
5. Reduce the oven temperature to 325 degrees.
6. In a standing mixer fitted with the paddle, beat the butter with the vanilla bean seeds at high speed until pale, about 2 minutes. Add 1 cup of the confectioner's sugar and beat at medium-high speed until light and fluffy, about 5 minutes, scraping down the side of the bowl with a rubber spatula halfway through. 
7. At low speed, mix in the salt, then gradually add the flour and walnuts and beat just until the cookie dough comes together, scraping down the side of the bowl halfway through.
8. Roll level tablespoons of the dough into balls and arrange them on the prepared cookie sheets. 
9. Bake the cookies in the upper and lower thirds of the oven for about 17 minutes, until they are lightly browned on the bottom. switch the sheets from top to bottom and front to back halfway through baking. 
10. Let the cookies firm up on the sheets, about 5 minutes, then transfer them to a rack to cool slightly.
11. Put the remaining 1 cup of confectioner's sugar in a small bowl. 
12. Roll the warm cookies in the sugar to coat and return to the rack to cool completely. 
13. Roll again in the sugar.
14. Enjoy!

I hope you all enjoy these cookies as much as I do. They are perfect for any holiday party, and pretty much everyone loves them. Now, go forth and bake my darlings! I'll be back tomorrow with another recipe, but until then, happy blogging and I'll catch you on the flip side!

-Mandie