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Sugar dusted lemon cookies that melt in your mouth!
These snowball cookies are super easy to make with just a handful of ingredients that you likely already have on hand!! Each cookie is rolled in powdered sugar making them look like snowballs, which makes them a festive treat for the holiday season.
They are a perfect bite of sweet with a little bit of tang from the fresh lemon zest sprinkled throughout the dough.
This recipe is apart of our Mozie Holiday Cookie Box. Check it our HERE.
Ingredient Snapshot:
- Flour: All purpose flour works just fine for these cookies! It helps to give the cookies some structure and form.
- Butter: This is what helps gives the cookies that melt-in-your-mouth texture. We recommend unsalted butter for these cookies. You will use a generous amount to make the dough, so you don’t want your dough to turn out too salty.
- Powdered Sugar: The butter and powdered sugar together give the powdery ‘snowball’ texture for these cookies. You will also use powdered sugar to roll the cookies in extra powdered sugar to finish
- Salt: Enhances other flavors in the cookies.
- Vanilla & Lemon Extract: A smidge of both extracts adds yummy flavor to the cookies.
- Lemon Zest: Adds a punch of lemon to each cookie.
Direction Snapshot:
- Preheat oven to 350ºF.
- Make dough and chill in the fridge for 10-15 minutes.
- Bake for 9-11 minutes.
- Let the cookies cool for 5 minutes and roll in powdered sugar.
Tips for making lemon snowball cookies…
These lemon snowball cookies are super easy to make and don’t take very long to whip together, but if you want to make the cookies ahead of time, here are some tips to make this recipe even quicker.
1. Make dough ahead of time, roll into balls.
- Chill in fridge: These cookies will be good for up to 3 days in the fridge.
- Chill in freezer: If you don’t plan on making these in a couple days, freeze them. (See our storage recommendations below.)
2. Create a mise en place.
This means “gather” in French. Basically measure and lay out everything you need to make the cookies so that it’s easy to throw everything together.
Try different snowball cookies flavors
After you make these lemon cookies, try these flavor variations. Have some fun trying different snowball flavors. You can use the same recipe and swap the lemon zest and flavoring for these mix ins..
- Nuts: Mix in finely chopped pecans, almonds or hazelnuts
- Matcha: Stir in matcha powder to the flour mixture before blending into the creamed butter.
- Chocolate: Mix in cocoa powder to the flour mixture before blending into the creamed butter and sugar.
- Try adding in some spices like cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves and ginger.
How to store lemon snowball cookies:
Storing baked cookies: Store at room temperature for 5-7 days in an air-tight container.
- Storing cookie dough in fridge: If you make dough ahead of time, the dough will be good for 2-3 days in your fridge. Store in a bowl covered with plastic wrap or in an airtight container.
- Storing cookie dough in freezer: Unbaked cookie dough will be good in the freezer for up to 3 months. We recommend rolling the dough into balls before freezing.
- Another tip for freezing dough: Roll dough into dough balls, line them on a cookie sheet and freeze for 30 minutes until firm. Then place them in a freezer bag. This will prevent the dough from sticking together.
Equipment You’ll Need for This Recipe:
Stand Mixer
Cookie Sheet
Want more cookie recipes? Check out these:
- Pistachio Shortbread Cookies
- Red Velvet Marshmallow Cookies
- No-Bake Chocolate Peanut Butter Pretzel Bars
Lemon Snowball Cookies
Description
Sugar dusted lemon cookies that melt in your mouth! These snowball cookies are super easy to make with just a handful of ingredients that you likely already have on hand.
Ingredients
- 2 1/4 cup all purpose flour
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1 cup butter, softened
- 1 tsp vanilla
- 1 tsp lemon extract
- 2 tbsp lemon zest
- 1/2 cup powdered sugar (plus more for rolling)
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350ºF. Line baking sheet with parchment paper.
- In a medium bowl, add flour and salt and stir together.
- Using an electric mixer with the paddle attachment, cream butter, sugar, vanilla and lemon extract together.
- Add flour mixture in a little at a time on low speed, waiting until the dough is completely mixed. Lastly, mix in lemon zest.
- Scoop spoonful of dough and roll out 1-inch dough balls. Place on a sheet pan lined with parchment paper. We recommend rolling out all dough balls and placing on parchment lined cooking sheet to chill in freezer for at least 10 minutes before baking. They will hold their shape better if chilled.
- Line parchment lined cookie sheet, making sure there is about 1-2 inches between each dough ball.
- Cook for 9-11 minutes. Pour 1/2 cup powdered sugar in a medium bowl for rolling the cookies.
- Place baked cookies on cooling rack for 5 minutes and roll in powdered sugar. Place them back on the cooling rack. Repeat steps 7-8 for the rest of the dough. Enjoy!
