These Festive Chocolate Snowball Cookies are the best tasting snowballs around! These rich chocolate cookies are coated in powdered sugar that are exploding with chocolate flavor!

Red and green mini candy-coated m&m's are hidden inside for a surprise! How fun is this chocolate snowball cookie recipe for Christmas?

This chocolate snowball cookie recipe are a favorite at Christmas time for sure. You usually see these shortbread type cookies on a cookie platter or a cookie exchange sometime during the month of December. We're not complaining!

The round bite-sized cookies themselves are not that sweet but are extremely rich from the butter, chocolate and powdered sugar.

I love how they are rolled in powdered sugar to give them a snowy vibe. And even better when I bite into their melt-in-your-mouth whipped shortbread texture!

Snowball Cookie History

It's hard to pin down where they came from, or even a basic recipe, because this recipe is different all over the world. Snowballs are also known as Russian tea cakes, Mexican wedding cookies, Italian cookies, and butterballs.

These classic holiday cookies do not include any eggs and has powdered sugar in the cookie dough instead of granulated or brown sugar.

It's a lovely chocolate shortbread-like dough, studded with m&m's, and bakes up to a texture that’s melt-in-your-mouth delicious.

The classic finish for them is a roll through powdered sugar for this chocolate snowball cookie recipe!

Ingredients You Need

unsalted butter
powdered sugar
unsweetened cocoa powder, like Hershey’s Special Dark!
vanilla extract
all-purpose flour
salt
mini m&ms or chocolate chips or chopped nuts
Additional powdered sugar for rolling

How to Make Chocolate Snowball Cookies

Preheat oven to 350°. Line two cookie sheets with parchment paper.
Using mixer, mix the butter, ½ cup powdered sugar, cocoa, and vanilla until fluffy. Add flour and salt and mix until the dough comes together. Stir in any add-ins, m&m’s, chocolate chips or nuts.
Scoop 1 tablespoon balls of dough and place on prepared cookie sheet.
Bake cookies for 7-10 minutes until bottoms are just slightly brown and the tops are no longer glossy. Remove from oven and cool for 5-10 minutes, until you can handle them.
Fill a small bowl with 1 cup powdered sugar and roll each cookie in the sugar until coated. Place on a rack to cool.
Once cookies are cooled, you may want to re-roll them in more powdered sugar.

Pro Tips:

Watch the cookies closely to be sure that they do not overbake. Overbaking cookies will make cookies dry and possibly crumbly. These cookies will continue baking once you take them out of the oven, so let them set up 5-10 minutes before handling them and rolling them in the powdered sugar.
Make sure your cookie dough is not warm when you put a batch in the oven. Warm cookie dough will lead to spreading and these cookies are meant to be round, like snowballs.
Do not coat with powdered sugar immediately after cookies come out of oven. The powdered sugar will just melt into the cookies, leaving you a snowless cookie. Let them cool for 5-10 minutes enough to handle and roll accordingly.

How Long do Snowball Cookies Last?

Snowball cookies last for at 3-4 days at room temperature or refrigerated, stored in airtight containers or zip-lock bags.

Freezer

These are the ideal make-ahead cookie! They will keep in the freezer for up to 6 months.

To freeze, store in containers instead of zip-lock bags, because they will stay fragile when frozen. That way they don't crumble.

These Festive Chocolate Snowball Cookies are also really fun for kids to help roll into balls and then roll in the powdered sugar. It may get a bit messy, but the kids will love it, right? Yay!

More Festive Dessert Recipes!!

Chocolate Snowball Cookies

Kim Lange

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Ingredients

1 cup unsalted butter softened
½ cup powdered sugar
¼ cup unsweetened cocoa powder (Hershey’s Special Dark)
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 cups all-purpose flour
½ teaspoon salt
1 cup mini m&ms or chocolate chips or chopped nuts
Additional powdered sugar for rolling 1 – 1 ½ cups

Instructions

Preheat oven to 350°. Line two cookie sheets with parchment paper.
Using mixer, mix the butter, ½ cup powdered sugar, cocoa, and vanilla until fluffy. Add flour and salt and mix until the dough comes together. Stir in the m&m’s, chocolate chips or nuts.
Scoop 1 tablespoon balls of dough and place on prepared cookie sheet.
Bake cookies for 7-10 minutes until bottoms are just slightly brown and the tops are no longer glossy. Remove from oven and cool for 5-10 minutes, until you can handle them.
Fill a small bowl with 1 cup powdered sugar and roll each cookie in the sugar until coated. Place on a rack to cool.
Once cookies are cooled, you may want to re-roll them in more powdered sugar.

Notes

Watch the cookies closely to be sure that they do not overbake. Overbaked snowballs will be very dry.

Tried This Recipe?Let us know how it was by commenting below!

Comments

Kim Lange says

December 14, 2021 at 9:32 am

Thank you so much Ben!!
Ben | Havocinthekitchen says

December 13, 2021 at 7:10 am

I love this type of cookies for their ultimately delectable and tender texture. These ones look beautiful! I wouldn't have expected to see candy in such cookies, so that's definitely a nice surprise 🙂