Sourdough Snowball Cookies

5 from 11 votes

The perfect little cookie, these sourdough snowball cookies are buttery and delicious made with ground pecans and sourdough discard. Dunk the whole cookie powdered sugar and you have an incredibly delicious little cookie that looks like a snowball. This one is perfect for those holiday cookie trays!

Prep Time20

Cook Time15

Total Time35

Course: cookies, Dessert

Cuisine: American

Servings: cookies

Author: Amy Coyne

Equipment

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

Sourdough Discard: I feed my sourdough starter with equal weights of water and flour for a 100% hydration starter. If your starter is fed differently, you will want to adjust the amount of flour called for in the recipe; adding more flour for a starter that is fed with a higher percentage of water and less flour for a lower hydration starter. The longer your discard sits in the fridge, the more “tang” it will have. I prefer using a younger discard in this recipe to balance with the other flavors.

Nuts: If you prefer not to use pecans in this recipe, you can substitute with a different nut or try leaving them out completely.

Nutrition