Traditional German snowball cookies: A festive family treat
For many, a white Christmas is the ultimate dream. We'll see how it goes this year and whether the desired white fluff will appear. My cousin brings a wintry atmosphere into the kitchen by baking snowball cookies each year. They make a charming table decoration and taste delightful.
Snowball cookies are often associated with German cuisine. "Schneeballen" are baked in Rothenburg, Bavaria. These crumbly cookies, fried in deep fat and shaped into a ball, have been around since 1719 and are now a local culinary attraction. Their preparation is not straightforward. However, based on these cookies, or rather their shape, many other recipes have emerged.
Perfect to make with kids
My cousin bakes snowball cookies with her children, using a simple recipe. It's a wonderful way to spend pre-holiday time with the little ones, bringing lots of fun and joy, just like when baking gingerbread cookies. The dough that forms the cookies is soft and malleable, allowing everyone to shape it into balls.
Lots of icing sugar
Even though finely chopped nuts are added to the dough, they remain soft after baking. You can supplement the ingredients with other favoured additions, like chocolate chips or orange zest. However, when it comes to decoration, there’s only one way. The balls must be generously dusted with icing sugar.
Snowball cookies from my cousin's recipe
Ingredients:
- 225g soft butter,
- 65g icing sugar,
- 1 egg yolk,
- 350g all-purpose flour,
- 2 teaspoons cream, if necessary,
- 130g roasted nuts of your choice, e.g., hazelnuts, walnuts, or cashews,
- finely chopped orange zest, if desired,
- vanilla extract to taste, if desired,
- a pinch of salt,
- a pinch of cinnamon,
- icing sugar for decoration.
Instructions:
- Cut the butter into smaller pieces, add the icing sugar, and beat thoroughly using a mixer or food processor until the mixture is smooth.
- Add the flour, salt, and vanilla to the mixture and knead the dough. If it's too dry, add cream.
- Finely chop the nuts and add them to the mixture along with the zest. Briefly knead the dough again.
- Form balls from the dough about the size of a walnut. Place them on a baking sheet lined with paper.
- Bake them at 190 degrees Celsius for about 10 minutes. The cookies should be fairly pale.
- While still warm, sprinkle with a layer of icing sugar, and add another layer once they’ve cooled.
