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Delightfully simple, delightfully delicious, these Sourdough Snowball Cookies ( my sourdough version of a Russian Tea Cake or Mexican Wedding Cookie) have only seven ingredients! After baking, they are coated in powdered sugar – twice for a sweet, buttery treat. These are perfect for a holiday cookie plate or to enjoy with a cup of cocoa!
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Why You’ll Love Snowball Cookies
- Festive: Kids love these cookies because they look like little snowballs and are perfect on a cookie plate next to some decorated Sourdough Gingerbread Cookies or Iced Oatmeal Sourdough Cookies.
- Quick & Easy: You’ll love how easy these cookies are to make – no chilling required. Just mix, scoop and bake – like my Sourdough Macadamia Nut Cookies that are also perfect for the holidays.
- Uses Up Sourdough Discard I always love a new recipe that uses up sourdough discard! This one adds moisture and flavor to the dough, like my sourdough sugar cookie bars (coming soon!).
- Incredibly Delicious: Softer than brown butter sourdough shortbread, you’ll love the way these cookies taste with the flavor from the pecans in the dough.
Important Ingredients
- Sourdough Discard: To avoid a stronger sourdough flavor, use sourdough discard that is fresh or no more than a day or two old. If you want to play up the tang in these snowball cookies, use discard with a stronger flavor – a couple of days old.
- Unsalted Butter: I bake a lot of cookies and always use unsalted butter to control the flavor in my baked goods.
- Powdered Sugar: Powdered sugar keeps these cookies soft, light, and sweet—reserve 1/2 cup for rolling the cookies.
- Pecans: Finely chopped pecans add flavor and texture to these sourdough discard cookies.
See the recipe card for full information on ingredients and quantities
Substitutions
- Nuts: I like pecans in my cookies, but you could substitute any favorite nut – walnuts would work well here too. I haven’t tried the snowball cookies without the nuts, but I think it could work well too. For more flavor, toast your pecans before blending and adding to the cookie dough.
- Sourdough Discard: If you don’t have sourdough discard on hand, active sourdough starter can be substituted instead.
- Butter: If you use salted butter instead of unsalted, you may want to decrease the salt a little in the dough. Salted butter contains different levels of salt depending on the brand, so unsalted works best in baked goods.
How to Make Snowball Cookies
Mix and Scoop Cookie Dough
Step 1: Beat the butter and powdered sugar together for about 1 minute until light and fluffy. Add the sourdough discard and vanilla extract. Mix for another minute until completely incorporated, scraping down the sides of the bowl as needed.
Step 2: Finely chop the pecans (I like to give them a whirl in my blender) and add them to a small bowl with the flour and salt. Fluff together until combined.
Step 3: Pour the dry ingredients into the butter mixture and beat until completely combined and a cohesive dough is formed. Scoop into balls.
Step 4: Pre-heat oven to 350ºF. Place cookie balls on a parchment-lined baking sheet in a 5 by 3 grid.
Bake and Dunk Cookies in Powdered Sugar
Step 5: Bake cookies for 15 minutes until soft, tender and baked through. They won’t rise much because there is no baking powder/soda in this dough. Remove from oven and let rest for 5 minutes.
Step 6: After 5 minutes, roll the warm cookies in powdered sugar. Place on a cooling rack or parchment to cool. Once cool roll again in powdered sugar to coat completely. Enjoy!
How to Store Leftovers
Let leftover snowball cookies cool completely. Store cooled cookies in an airtight container in the freezer. Pull them out of the freezer a few hours before you want to enjoy them so they can thaw at room temperature. Enjoy!
Amy’s Recipe Tip
This tip is purely for you the baker – Try a sourdough snowball cookie warm and just rolled in powdered sugar. Just one! The other ones you can let cool completely, but this is your reward for a long day of holiday baking.
I often talk about the importance of baked goods cooling almost completely before consuming them because the baking process is still happening as baked goods cool, BUT, my tip for these cookies – is to try one warm. They are melt-in-your-mouth delicious warm after their first roll in powdered sugar – I’m still thinking about them because I loved them so much!
Frequently Asked Questions
I love adding sourdough discard to many recipes. Some recipes, like these ham and cheese sourdough scones, it enhances the flavor. In some recipes I use it for the moisture and benefits of fermented flour. And some recipes I just want to use up some of my discard and not let it go to waste. For these cookies, I prefer using a fresh or young discard so I don’t get much if any sour flavor.
Yes. Scoop the cookie dough into balls. Place the dough balls in the refrigerator after mixing and let sit in the refrigerator overnight for up to a couple days. The longer the dough ferments, the more sour flavor the cookies can have, but they will also have more of the benefits from sourdough fermentation.
You can, but the powdered sugar really makes them something special. I actually encourage you to dip the snowball cookies into the powdered sugar twice – once while the cookies are still warm and once before serving them. It makes them look like little snowballs and the extra sweetness from the powdered sugar is yummy.
I haven’t tried them this way, so I can’t say 100%, but some snowball cookies are made without the nuts, so I think it will work. Leave the nuts out and let me know in the comments if you try them!
The key to this is rolling them twice in powdered sugar. Roll them once when they are warm out of the oven and again once they have cooled.
More Cookie Recipes You’ll Love
If you tried these Sourdough Snowball Cookies or any other recipe on my website leave a 🌟 star rating and let me know how it went in the comments below. Happy Baking!
Sourdough Snowball Cookies
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Equipment
- small cookie scoop 1 Tablespoon sized
Ingredients
Sourdough Snowball Cookie Dough
- 170 grams unsalted butter, softened (about 12 Tablespoons)
- 60 grams powdered sugar, about 1/2 cup
- 100 grams sourdough discard, scant 1/2 cup
- 8 grams vanilla extract, about 2 teaspoons
- 120 grams finely chopped pecans, about 1 cup
- 225 grams all-purpose flour, about 1 3/4 cups
- 3 grams salt, 1/2 teaspoon
- 100 grams powdered sugar, about 3/4 cup, reserved for rolling the cookies
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and line two cookie sheets with parchment paper.
- To the bowl of a stand mixer using the paddle attachment (or using a hand mixer), beat the butter and powdered sugar together about 1 minute until creamy. Add the sourdough discard and vanilla extract and whip again on medium-high speed until completely combined and the mixture looks light and fluffy. Scrape down the sides of the bowl as needed and mix again until completely incorporated.
- To a small bowl whisk together finely chopped pecans (I like to give them a whirl in my blender), flour and salt. Add the dry ingredients into the bowl with the butter mixture and beat in the flour mixture until completely combined.
- Scoop the dough into balls, about 25 grams (1 Tablespoon) each and place onto a baking sheet, about 12-15 cookies per baking sheet.
- Bake cookies for 15 minutes. The cookies will not spread much, but will form a mound on the cookie sheet with the inside soft and tender, but baked through. Remove the cookies from the oven and let rest for about 5 minutes.
- After 5 minutes roll the warm cookies in the reserved powdered sugar. Place on a baking rack or parchment paper to cool. Once the cookies are cooled roll again in powdered sugar until completely coated. Enjoy!
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
These were delightful. I have made 5 double batches for my Christmas catering jobs. I like these better than the traditional recipe (without SD starter) as they are not as dry and crumbly. I use a #70 scoop and it makes the perfect pop in your mouth sized cookie.
Thanks for the review! Glad you love these cookies!
These cookies are amazing!! Easy to make and delicious!
So glad you enjoyed them! Thanks for sharing.
Absolutely delicious. They also freeze very well.
Thanks for the review! Happy baking!