Italian Snowball Cookies With Orange And Lemon

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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.

Snowball cookies piled up into a pyramid shape on a white plate with an orange and lemon in the background.

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 or like my snowball cookies with cream cheese. These are nut-free and the dough is like sugar cookie dough and has citrus flavors from the orange and lemon.

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.

Snowball cookies on a sheet pan covered in powdered sugar with one spot where a snowball cookie is missing because someone ate it.

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

Preparing the snowball cookies in pictures from mixing the butter and citrus in a bowl, adding sugar and continuing the whipping of the butter, then adding the dry ingredients and mixing until the dough looks crumbly.

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.

Italian snowball cookies on a sheet pan already baked and powdered sugar being dusted over the top.

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

When do you roll cookies in powdered sugar?

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.

What are snowball cookies made of?

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.

Are snowball cookies the same as Italian wedding cookies?

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.

What causes snowball cookies to flatten during cooking?

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

Print Recipe

5 from 7 votes

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.

Prep Time10

Cook Time15

Total Time25

Servings: dozen (approx)

US Customary - Metric

Author: Melissa Oleary

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

The recipe originally comes from Epicurious and over the years I have made my own adjustments to suit my own taste.

Nutrition