Almond Snowball Cookies

On Friday night, I finished all of my homework (yeah, I did homework on a Friday night - I'm a party!) and then my mama told me she was craving a dessert with almond in it. Well I took this craving and my own personal craving for snow and went to Pinterest! And as always, Pinterest delivered! These almond snowball cookies are pure bliss - you can find the original recipe HERE, but here is how I made them...

Start with 1 cup of softened butter in a medium sized mixing bowl.

Mix in 1/2 cup of icing sugar (you will need additional icing sugar to roll the cookies in later), 2 teaspoons of vanilla extract and 1 teaspoon of almond extract.

Then, stir in 2 cups of all-purpose flour. You'll notice in pictures that I switched to a wooden spoon for stirring because I was needing something a little stronger than a spatula!

Finally, mix in 1 cup of finely chopped almonds. I used almonds that were already thinly sliced and chopped 'em up a little more.

Use a tablespoon to measure out the balls of dough. Remove the tablespoon of dough from the measuring spoon and roll it into a ball. Place the balls about 1 inch apart along a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. These cookies barely spread at all, so having them a little closer than an inch apart is not a big deal.

Bake the cookies at 325 degrees Fahrenheit for 15 minutes - they shouldn't be brown yet when you remove them. I had to bake my cookies a little longer than 15 minutes, because they weren't set after fifteen minutes. I think they were in for about 20 minutes in total.

Allow the cookies to cool until they are cool enough to touch, then roll them in icing sugar. At this point in the recipe, I was skeptical! Rolling the cookies in icing sugar while they are still warm just melts the icing sugar and looks kind of lame! My skepticism was totally calmed after a second roll in icing sugar once the cookies are completely cooled - they ended up looking beautiful!

I did not use a wire cooling rack while cooling these cookies because I figured that all of the icing sugar would just fall through to my counter and make a mess. I used the parchment paper that the cookies baked on - once they were rolled in icing sugar, I placed them on the parchment paper to cool further.

Once you've rolled the cookies in icing sugar once, set them out to cool completely (I put mine in the fridge to speed this process up). When the cookies are completely cool, roll them in icing sugar again. During this second roll, the cookies really hold the sugar better and the end result is darling!

Almond Snowball Cookies
yield: 35 cookies
ingredients
1 cup butter, softened
1/2 cup icing sugar (+ additional for rolling)
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 teaspoon almond extract
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup almonds, finely chopped

directions
1. In a medium mixing bowl, mix the softened butter and the icing sugar together, Once that is well combined, stir in the vanilla extract and the almond extract.
2. Stir in the flour until well combined, then add in the chopped almonds.
3. Use a tablespoon to measure your dough and roll each tablespoon of dough into a ball. Place the balls about an inch apart along a baking sheet lined with parchment paper.
4. Bake the cookies for 15 minutes at 325 degrees Fahrenheit (my cookies had to go in a little longer for them to set - my cookies took about 20 minutes to cook fully).
5. When the cookies are cool enough to touch, roll them in icing sugar and set them out to cool completely.
6. When the cookies are completely cooled, roll them in icing sugar once again.

These cookies are so delicious and so easy! Let me know if you try them this holiday season!