Snowball Cookies

On Friday, on the way to pick up the clever girl from preschool, I remembered that her "graduation" was Saturday and I had volunteered to bring cookies to the subsequent open house.  Of course at that time I was on the way HOME from the grocery store, so I would need to make cookies with ingredients I had on hand.  That is not generally a problem.  But then when I picked up the clever girl and asked her what kind of cookies we should make, she told me that someone already brought in chocolate chip cookies for the open house.  Hmmm.  My "go-to" cookies are chocolate chip or brownies.  But if someone else was bringing chocolate chip, maybe I should try for something without chocolate.  GASP!  What?  A COOKIE with no CHOCOLATE?  Oh, boy.

Maybe we should make peanut butter cookies?  No, we have no roasted peanuts.
Maybe we should make oatmeal cookies?  No, not in the mood.
To my folder of favorite recipes I went - and found SNOWBALL cookies!  Yahoo!  This will do the trick.

However, snowball cookies are a little, well, boring looking for a preschooler.  Not a problem!  Add multi-colored sprinkles!  Sprinkles make everything fantastic, according to the clever girl anyway.  And really, I think she is right.  Everything is more fun with sprinkles!
 
Here's the recipe!
Snowball Cookies
adapted from My Baking Addiction

1 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
1/2 cup confectioner's sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup chopped pecans (or nut of your preference)
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
1/3 cup confectioner's sugar, sifted - for rolling cookies

Preheat oven to 350F.  Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper.
Using the paddle attachment, beat the butter and 1/2 cup confectioner's sugar in the bowl of a stand mixer until smooth and creamy.  Add vanilla extract and beat until combined.  Mix in the flour, pecans, and salt until just combined.  Roll about 1 tablespoon of dough (depending on how large you want the cookies) into balls and place them on the prepared cookie sheet.  You can place the cookies close to each other as they do not spread.

Bake in the preheated oven for about 15 minutes.  Let the cookies cool a bit on the cookie sheet, just until you are able to handle them.  While they are cooling, sift 1/3 cup confectioners sugar into a small bowl.  Roll the warm cookies in the sugar and place on a cooling rack.  Once they are cooled completely, roll them in confectioner's sugar again (I forgot to do this - if I had, the cookies would be more uniformly coated...oops!)

Store in an airtight container for up to 3 days or freeze for up to one month.
Printable recipe

Yum.  I had forgotten how good these cookies are.  They are so buttery and flaky they pretty much melt in your mouth.  Mmmm.