A few weeks ago, I set out to make Viennese crescents, a buttery, almondy, powdered-sugar-dusted cookie my mother made often at the holidays when I was young. Upon looking at the recipe, which called for softened butter and a mixer, I wondered if I could use melted butter instead and mix by hand or cold butter and my food processor. A Google search led me to this Stella Parks recipe for Mexican wedding cookies, which were nearly identical in makeup to the crescents, and which I learned go by many other names: Russian tea cakes, snowballs, butterballs. But what I found most interesting about the article was this: Stella writes that the use of “powdered sugar gives the dough an especially light texture without the need for any creaming—a technique that’s meant to aerate doughs made dense by granulated sugar.” As such, she uses cold butter and a food processor — boom! I made the crescents immediately using Stella’s method and, for simplicity, I rolled them into balls. They turned out beautifully, not unlike shortbread with that buttery, melt-in-your-mouth consistency. After a few experiments, I swapped in almond flour for the freshly toasted and ground almonds, which made the process even faster without sacrificing any flavor, and I found the addition of lemon zest — and a lot of it — made them even more irresistible. This dough comes together shockingly quickly and yields at least 30 cookies, which places it squarely into that low-effort, high-yield category of holiday cookie recipes we all could use a little more of in our lives this time of year.
How to Make Snowball Cookies, Step by Step
Gather your ingredients: flour, butter, confectioners’ sugar, almond flour, salt, vanilla, and lemon zest. If you wish, measure out your ingredients. Place the butter, almond flour, confectioners’ sugar, salt, vanilla, and lemon zest in the bowl of a food processor. Pulse 10 to 15 times at 1-second intervals until you have a crumbly mixture. Add the flour and purée… … until the mass comes together around the blade. Transfer the mixture to a bowl. Use a scoop to portion the dough into roughly 30 balls or use a scale (my preferred method) to divide the dough into 20-gram portions. It’s a little tedious using a scale, but it ensures the portions are uniform, which ensures the cookies bake evenly. Ball up the portions by rolling them between your palms. Place 12 balls on a sheet pan and bake @ 350ºF for 14-15 minutes. The cookies will be mostly pale with light brown bottoms. Let the cookies cool for 2 minutes on the sheet pan, then transfer to a cooling rack. Sift confectioners’ sugar over the top. Repeat until you’ve baked off all of the cookies. Let cool completely before storing in an airtight container or… … serve immediately. 4.9 from 15 reviews
Notes:
For best results, use a scale to measure. It’s the only way to measure accurately. Salt: I use Diamond Crystal kosher salt. If you are using Morton or fine sea salt, use 1/4 teaspoon.
