Add a touch of Italian flair to your holiday cookie boxes with these delicious citrus snowball cookies. Made with fresh lemon and orange zest, these cookies are sure to be a hit at any gathering.
About these Italian snowball cookies
This Italian snowball cookie recipe was something that I began making with the leftover scraps from my citrus cut-out cookies. With one dough, I get two types of cookies!
These snowball cookies are not the traditional snowball cookies that have nuts. These are nut-free and the citrus flavors from the orange and lemon replace them.
These cookies are fluffy and melt in your mouth and they have been a holiday tradition in our home for over 10 years.
Another great thing about these cookies is that they are very forgiving. You only need to grab a chunk of the dough, squeeze it in your hands, and then roll it into a ball. You just cannot overwork it (trust me, I have made this recipe over and over and the dough never comes out overworked!)
I love making these delicious cookies to go with my hot apple cider and my eggnog at Christmas. They are the perfect holiday treat or addition to your Christmas cookie platter.
Ingredients Needed
The ingredients for these snowball cookies are so simple. Here is what you will need (full ingredients list and quantities below):
- All-purpose flour
- Baking powder
- Kosher salt
- Unsalted butter
- Lemon
- Orange
- Sugar
- Powdered sugar
- 1 large egg
How to make Italian snowball cookies with orange and lemon
- Cream butter: You want to start with creaming the butter and the citrus.
- Whip until fluffy: After the butter is creamed, add the sugar and mix until fluffy then add in the egg and mix until incorporated.
- Add dry ingredients: Now you add the dry ingredients (flour, baking powder, and salt) to the creamed mixture and mix until the dough becomes crumbly.
- Refrigerate: Wrap the dough in plastic wrap then refrigerate for at least 30 minutes.
- Roll: Remove your dough from the fridge and begin taking small chunks of dough warming them in your hands and roll them into little snowballs.
- Bake: Place on a baking sheet and bake for 10 minutes.
- Cool: When done baking, allow the cookies to cool on the cookie sheet.
- Add powdered sugar: Roll in powdered sugar after they have cooled slightly.
- Optional: You can dust them with more powdered sugar before serving.
As I mentioned above, this is the same dough I use for my holiday citrus cookie recipe. That recipe is for making shapes so you could make both types of cookies at once if you prefer.
Tips
- Working with a drier dough: Sometimes depending on how dry it is outside and how long you refrigerate the dough, the dough can be a little drier than most cookie doughs out there, but let me tell you it is worth it for the flavor! Remember that there is really no overworking the dough in this snowball cookie recipe. Just keep rolling and squeezing the dough in your hands until the ball of dough comes together. It is actually kind of fun doing this.
- Best time to add powdered sugar to the snowball cookies: This recipe has you roll the snowball cookies when they are mostly cool. Sometimes I also like to roll the snowball cookies right when they come out of the oven. When you roll them in some powdered sugar while they are still nice and warm some of the powdered sugar will be absorbed into the cookie and some will remain on the outside of the cookie. I suggest trying it both ways to see what you prefer.
Storing
These cookies store really well. I have had great success making these and storing them in an airtight container for up to one week. If you plan on storing them longer, place them on a plate side by side then cover and refrigerate.
I don't recommend freezing them since they will lose that melt-in-your-mouth texture. They probably won't last that long because they are so addictive.
Faqs
You can roll cookies in powdered sugar when they are cool or still warm. The powdered sugar does stay on the cooled cookies. When you roll snowball cookies in powdered sugar while the cookie is still warm the cookie will absorb some of that sweet powdered sugar.
Snowball cookies can be made from many different cookie dough recipes but they all resemble snowballs. The one thing all snowball cookie dough recipes will have in common is the dough will be drier so the cookies do not flatten when baking. After baking, they are always rolled in powdered sugar.
There are many different types of snowball cookies and Italian wedding cookies which are made with nuts are one type of this variety of cookie.
Sometimes snowball cookies can flatten during cooking and that is caused by the dough being too moist. It is best to make sure the dough for the snowball cookies is on the drier side to ensure they hold their shape during baking.
Pairing Ideas
Italian Snowball Cookies With Orange And Lemon
Ingredients
Cookie Dough
- 2 cups all purpose flour
- 1 ½ teaspoons baking powder
- ¼ teaspoon kosher salt
- ¾ cup unsalted butter, room temperature
- the zest of one lemon with a microplane or zester
- the zest of 1 orange with a microplane or zester
- ½ cup sugar
- ¼ cup powdered sugar
- 1 large egg
Decorating
- 1 cup of powdered sugar in small bowl
Instructions
- Sift flour, baking powder and salt into medium bowl.2 cups all purpose flour, 1 ½ teaspoons baking powder, ¼ teaspoon kosher salt
- Using electric mixer, beat butter, lemon zest and orange zest in large bowl until light.¾ cup unsalted butter, room temperature, the zest of one lemon, the zest of 1 orange
- Add ½ cup sugar and ¼ cup powdered sugar and beat until fluffy.½ cup sugar, ¼ cup powdered sugar
- Beat in egg.1 large egg
- Add dry ingredients.
- Using spoon, stir until mixture forms a crumbly dough. You can use your hands to mix it together as well.
- Refrigerate for 30 minutes.
- Preheat the oven to 350°F.
- Take 1 heaping teaspoon of cookie dough at a time and roll into a ball in your hands. If the dough is dry just squish it in your hands to warm the butter in the dough and try rolling it again.
- Transfer cookies to ungreased nonstick baking sheets, spacing ½ inch apart.
- Repeat this process until you rolled all of your dough into cookie balls.
- Bake until cookies turn lightly brown on bottoms, about 10-15 minutes. At 10 minutes I like to check the cookies by gently lifting up one cookie on the pan and looking at the bottom to see if it is a brown.
- Once they are done, remove from the oven and place on a cooling rack
- Let cookies cool completely then using a small spoon or fork, transfer cookies to a bowl of powdered sugar, rolling them around so they get nice and coated.1 cup of powdered sugar in small bowl
- Repeat this process until you have coated all your cookies with powdered sugar.
- Dust with a little more powdered sugar before serving.
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition Values are estimates only.
See full nutrition disclaimer hereTried the Recipe? We Would Love To Hear From You In The Comments Below!
Susan Sargent says
Can you freeze these? Should you freeze them before putting the powdered sugar on them? Can you freeze the dough?
Melissa says
Hi Susan. You can freeze the dough and thaw it in the fridge overnight before you are ready to use it. Take it out of the fridge about 10 minutes before you are ready to roll them so they will be easier to roll. I would not freeze them after you make the cookies. Hope this helps 🙂
Cecilia says
They were amazing
Melissa says
Love hearing that!
Emily says
Recipe says 1.5 cups butter or 1.5 sticks. A stick of butter is half a cup. So which is it: 1.5 cups of butter aka 3 sticks OR 3/4 cup butter aka 1.5 sticks
Pam B says
Have you ever just used Lemon zest ? We have a serious orange allergy I was wondering ifabout doubling the lemon zest.
Melissa Oleary says
Hi Pam. Yes, we sometimes make this with just the lemon zest. Just omit the orange and replace it with lemon and you are all set 🙂