Grab some extra napkins because these vegan snowball cookies are sweet, buttery, studded with pecans and covered in a delicate powdered sugar coating. Perfect for the holidays and easy to make with just 6 ingredients!
Full disclosure: regular old snowball cookies are almost vegan. These little powdered sugar coated shortbread cookies (which might also be referred to as Mexican wedding cookies or Russian tea cakes, depending on who you ask) are made with really simple ingredients, and eggs aren't one of them.
It's not that hard to find a basic recipe for snowballs and make it vegan with a few adjustments.
I put this out there because I know I'll get at least one person commenting or emailing me asking why I bothered with this recipe. I have good reasons!
For one thing, it's a delicious snowball recipe. Your grandma would agree. For another thing, maybe you didn't realize snowballs are so easy to veganize. Now you do! And finally, not everyone will know what swaps need to be made and which ingredients to look out for in particular. There are two, and we'll talk a bit about them below.
So, now that you're armed all this knowledge, what are you going to do? Bake up some vegan snowballs, of course! They make excellent Christmas cookies.
Jump to:
Ingredients You'll Need
- Vegan butter. Look for this near the regular butter at your supermarket. I used Earth Balance.
- Organic powdered sugar. This is the ingredient you need to look out for! In many areas including the U.S. conventional sugar is processed using animal bone char, so it's not considered vegan. For this reason we want to make sure to use organic powdered sugar, which is processed differently, without animal products.
- Vanilla extract.
- Flour. We're using all-purpose flour, also known as wheat flour or white flour. I haven't tested the recipe with other varieties, so I can't say if they'll work.
- Salt.
- Pecans. Feel free to leave these out if they're not your thing, or substitute another type of nut, such as walnuts, almonds or hazelnuts.
How They're Made
Below is a detailed photo tutorial on how to make this dish. Scroll all the way down if you'd like to skip right to the recipe!
- Start by using an electric mixer to cream room temperature vegan butter together with powdered sugar. Make sure your butter is at room temperature before you begin, and beat the mixture until it's creamy. You can use a handheld mixer or stand mixer for this step — it's up to you!
- Now beat the vanilla into the mixture.
- Begin beating flour into the mixture. Add the flour in 3 or 4 increments, beating each one in at low speed before adding the next.
- Sprinkle the salt over the last addition of flour before you beat it in.
Tip: The cookie dough will look pretty crumbly at this point. This is okay! Test it by pressing some together with your hands. As long as it holds together, it's fine!
- Stir in finely chopped pecans by hand.
- Roll the dough into balls, using about 1 tablespoon of dough for each ball.
Tip: A one-tablespoon cookie scoop is a great tool for getting nice rounded dough balls that are uniform in size.
- Arrange the dough balls on parchment paper-lined baking sheets and bake the cookies until they darken ever so slightly.
- Place the cookie sheets onto cooling racks once they come out of the oven. Let the cookies cool for five minutes, then roll them in powdered sugar and place them directly on the cooling racks.
- Now let the cookies cool completely. Once they're cool (which should take 30 to 40 minutes), roll them in powdered sugar for a second time.
- Your vegan snowball cookies are now ready to enjoy!
Tip: The first coating of powdered sugar might not stick that great, and some of it will certainly melt into the cookies. Don't worry! The second coating will hold up much better.
Leftovers & Storage
Vegan snowball cookies will keep in airtight container at room temperature for at least a week, or in the freezer for about 3 months.
More Vegan Holiday Cookies
Like this recipe? If so, please stop back and leave me a review and rating below if you try it! Also be sure to follow me on Facebook, Pinterest or Instagram, or subscribe to my newsletter for more recipes like this one!
📖 Recipe
Vegan Snowball Cookies
Ingredients
- 1 cup vegan butter, at room temperature
- â…” cup organic powdered sugar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 2 ¼ cups all-purpose flour
- â…› teaspoon salt
- 1 cup chopped pecans
For Rolling
- â…” cup organic powdered sugar, or more if needed
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350°F and line a couple of baking sheets with parchment paper.
- In a large mixing bowl, use an electric mixer to cream the butter together with â…” cup of powdered sugar. Beat the mixture until creamy, about 1 minute.
- Beat in the vanilla.
- Begin beating the flour into the mixture in about 3 increments, beating each addition in at low speed until fully incorporated. When you add the last increment, sprinkle the salt on top before beating it in. (Note 1)
- Stir in the pecans by hand.
- Roll the dough into 1-tablespoon balls and arrange them on the baking sheets, about 2 inches apart.
- Bake the cookies until very slightly darkened, 12 to 14 minutes.
- Transfer the baking sheets to cooling racks once they come out of the oven.
- Let the cookies cool on the baking sheets for 5 minutes. Place the remaining â…” cup of powdered sugar into a small bowl while the cookies cool.
- After 5 minutes, roll each cookie in the powdered sugar, then transfer the cookies directly to the cooling racks to continue cooling. Some of the powdered sugar will sink into the cookies and melt.
- Once the cookies are completely coo, roll them in the powdered sugar a second time. The second coating should stick and hold up better.
- Serve or store in an airtight container for up to a week.
Notes
- The dough will be crumbly at this point, which is okay as long as you can make it hold together by pressing some in your hands. Add a splash of water if it won't hold together, but make sure not to add too much or the texture of your cookies won't be quite right.
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Wondering if Bob's One-to-One GF flour would work in place of the AP flour?
I'm afraid I haven't tried, so I'm not sure! It usually works well for me in cookie recipes, so I think it should here as well. I'd love to hear how it turns out if you try it!
First time ever having these and they're delish. Easy to make too. Win win. Thank you!
So easy to make. Absolutely delicious - light and buttery and melted in the mouth. Replaced the pecans with walnuts and they were perfect.
On the recipe, 2/3 cup of powdered sugar , then in the instructions the 2/3 of powdered sugar was used twice .
2/3 cup of powdered sugar appears twice in the recipe - first for the cookies and then for rolling (last line of ingredients).