Snowballs
No holiday is complete without sweets like this yummy snowball cookies recipe.
Snowballs are known by different names around the world: wedding cookies, nut balls, pecan balls, etc. In my home, we only traditionally make these during the holidays, but they are so delicious and easy to make that you can whip up a batch of these anytime you need a treat.
Over the years I've tried to swap out as much of the sugar from these as possible, which is why it calls for Monkfruit sweetener. This has the additional benefit of lowering carbs and calories alike; however, you can use granulated sugar in this recipe and powdered sugar to dust the balls if this is what you have on hand. Just understand the caloric value will be higher that the scant 85 calories listed below.
The one thing I haven't swapped out is the butter. You can use coconut butter instead if you are vegan or dairy-free. These are also gluten-free, but if that isn't a concern, you can use all-purpose flour instead.
The thing that really makes these cookies extra tasty are the toasted nuts. If you haven't toasted nuts before, it's very easy. Preheat your oven to 350°F / 180°C, spread the nuts out on a parchment-lined sheet pan in a single layer, then put them in the oven for about 10 minutes. Take them out and let them cool before storing them in an airtight container for future use.
TIP: You can substitute other types of nuts if you don't have pecans on hand. Walnuts work particularly well in a pinch.
TIP: You can substitute fine coconut flakes as a decoration in place of the powdered sweetener.
Ingredients
(Makes 24 servings | Serving size = 1 cookie)
1 cup Cassava flour (or all-purpose flour)
1 cup pecans, toasted, finely chopped
3 tablespoons Monkfruit sweetener (or granulated sugar)
1/2 cup butter, unsalted, softened (or coconut butter)
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
Decoration
1 cup Monkfruit baking sweetener (or powdered sugar)
Directions
In a mixing bowl, add all of the ingredients (except the baking sweetener) then mix by hand until it forms a dough. Cover with cling wrap and refrigerate for 1 hour.
When you remove the dough from the refrigerator, begin preheating the oven to 350°F / 180°C. Cover a sheet pan with parchment paper and begin rolling the dough into 1-inch balls. Line the balls on the sheet pan a minimum of 1.5 inches apart.
Bake for 15 minutes. When they come out of the oven they should be set but not browned. Allow them to cool for 15 minutes on the sheet pan.
Place the baking sweetener in a bowl, then one at a time, carefully transfer the cookies to the bowl and coat the cookies in the sweetener. Shake off any excess sweetener and place the snowballs onto a cooling rack. Let cool an additional 30 minutes, then again carefully toss the cookies in the baking sweetener and place on serving tray, or store in an airtight container for up to 1 week.
Nutritional Information Per Serving:
total calories = 84.5 | total fat (using butter) = 7.17g | saturated fat = 2.64g | cholesterol = 10.33mg | sodium = 0.68mg | carbohydrates = 8.19g | dietary fibre = 1g | sugars = 0.19g | protein = 0.71g
