I have been making these citrus snowball cookies as my family's Christmas cookies for years because they are so amazing. This dough is actually for my regular cutout Citrus sugar cookies and I adapted it to this easy recipe. Give these snowball cookies a try and they will become your favorite holiday treat.
About these snowball cookies:
This citrus snowball cookie recipe was something that I began making when I decided there had to be a better way to work with those left over scraps that you end up with after rolling out your cutout cookies. This snowball cookie idea has become the way I make use of those cookie dough scraps.
We love these cookies so much now that we make an entire batch of this dough and only make these cookies. These cookies are very forgiving. You only need to grab a chunk of the dough and squeeze it in your hands and then roll them into a ball. You just cannot over work it!
The steps to making these citrus snowball cookies:
- Make your dough and refrigerate for at least an hour.
- Remove your dough from the fridge and begin taking small chunks of dough a warming them in your hands.
- When your dough is a little pliable start rolling them into little round balls.
- Place on a baking sheet and bake for 10 minutes.
- As soon as they are out of the oven, roll the warm cookies in powdered sugar.
- Place the cookies on a cookie sheet and let cool completely.
- You can dust them with more powdered sugar after they cool (optional)
When they come out of the oven, I roll them in some powdered sugar while they are still nice and warm and they absorb that yummy sweetness. Some of the powdered sugar will be absorbed into the cookie and some will remain on the outside of the cookie.
That powdered sugar that is absorbed into the cookie is part of what makes these snowball cookies so good.
These are the most sought after cookies in our family. I also love entertaining with them. As I mentioned above, this is the same dough I use for my holiday citrus cookie recipe when I am making shapes so you could make both types of cookies at once if you prefer.
I have also evolved this recipe even more by adding in warm eggnog spices and creating the most delicious eggnog snowball cookies. I may invent another use for this dough!
Working with the Dough:
This 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 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. Get others involved and it makes the process much faster.
Having a drier dough from the start is what gives you the perfect light texture after baking. Trust me, I would not write up a recipe that is too difficult. Trust in the squeeze and roll in your hands process 🙂
Give this recipe a try and you will have a new favorite cookie! Once you see how easy these are to make you will be adding these to your Christmas cookies rotation for years to come.
For more great holiday recipes you may like:
- Italian Pizzelles
- Homemade Marshmallows
- Eggnog Snowball Cookies
- Citrus Cookie Cutouts
- S'mores Pie Holiday Mason Jars
- Chocolate Chip and Oatmeal Cookies
Citrus Snowball Cookies
Ingredients
Cookie Dough
- 2 cups unbleached all purpose flour
- 1 ½ teaspoons baking powder
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- ¾ cup unsalted butter, room temperature which is equal to 1 ½ sticks
- 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.
- Using electric mixer, beat butter, lemon peel and tangerine peel in large bowl until light.
- Add ½ cup sugar and ¼ cup powdered sugar and beat until fluffy.
- Beat in egg.
- Add dry ingredients.
- Using spoon, stir until mixture forms a crumbly dough. You can use your hands to mix it together as well.
- Preheat the oven to 350°F.
- Take 1 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 stand on sheets 1 minute. Using a small spoon or fork, transfer cookies to a bowl of powdered sugar, rolling them around so they get nice and coated.
- Now transfer cookies to a cooling rack to fully cool.
- Repeat this process until you have coated all your cookies with powdered sugar.
- Let cookies fully cool on cooling rack, about 30 minutes and then enjoy!
- Dust with a little more powdered sugar before serving.
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition Values are estimates only.
See full nutrition disclaimer here
Jen says
We are addicted to these now! They are so good.
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
Melissa says
Hi Emily.
The recipe calls for 3/4 cup of unsalted butter (1.5 sticks of butter.) Hope this helps 🙂