Growing up, one of my favorite memories during the Holidays was making holiday treats. Over school break we would help my mom make a treat a day. By the end of the week we’d make an assorted plate for each of our neighbors and there would be plenty left-over for our annual Christmas Eve Party we celebrated with friends. There were sugar cookies and chocolate logs, holiday rice krispy treats and toffee (that is if it lasted till the party), but my favorite found on the goodie plate we called “snowball cookies”, for obvious reasons. Shortbread goodness all in a ball covered with powdered sugar…what’s not to like. Last week cookergirl asked that we make snowball cookies and I knew they would be a great candidate for our Azure Standard Whole Wheat Pastry Flour. Enjoy!

ingredients

2 cups pecans or walnuts (ground into a course meal)
2 cups whole wheat pastry flour
3/4 teaspoon sea salt
2 sticks unsalted butter, softened
1/3 cup raw cane sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups confectioners’ sugar

1. Preheat convection oven to 300°  (325° conventional).
2. In a medium bowl, combine nut meal, flour and salt
3. Using a mixer, beat butter and sugar until lights and fluffy, then add vanilla.
4. On low speed slowly add nuts, flour and salt until combined.
5. Roll dough into 1 inch balls and place on a greased cookie sheet or one lined with parchment.  Place dough balls about an inch apart.
6. Bake 12 minutes or until just beginning to brown. (18 minutes or so for conventional oven)
7. Let the cookies cool a few minutes.  While still warm, roll each cookie in powdered sugar to coat.

Makes 3-4 dozen cookies (depending on how much dough you eat while rolling them lol)

Do you have a favorite holiday cookie?  We received a special Swiss Recipe book from our cousins at Christmas and are hoping to try Zitronen-Mailanderi next week, which are their Christmas lemon butter cookies…they look so good! Have a yummy rest of your week! xo ~ katrina and cookergirl {recipe scribe}