Snowball Cookies

by Jordyn Gillespie

Bar Manager

Fifteen years ago, when my mom got remarried, she and my new stepdad wanted a way for the family to feel comfortable getting together. They wanted us to have a chance to connect, so they invented a new holiday: Cookie Day!

It was a huge success. My siblings, cousins, and the whole family got together at my Nanny’s house to spend the day making four kinds of cookies: sugar cookies, pumpkin chocolate chip, peanut butter with Hershey’s kisses, and (my favorite) almond snowball cookies. It was fun to catch up with each other while we worked furiously, elbow to elbow, churning out over 200 cookies. In fact, it was such a great time that we have repeated the tradition every year since.

I don’t generally make the long drive from Nevada back to Utah, not even for Christmas. But I will do it for one reason, but I am not going to miss Cookie Day and my snowball cookies!

Ingredients

1 cup butter
1/3 cup sugar
2 tsp water
2 tsp vanilla
2 cups flour
1 cup chopped almonds
2 tsp almond extract
powdered sugar for dusting

Directions

Cream the butter and sugar. Add water and vanilla, and mix. Add the flour, almonds, and almond extract. Mix well.
Chill in freezer for an hour.
Preheat oven to 350°F. Shape dough into balls and place on cookie sheet.
Bake for 15 minutes. Allow cookies to cool, then roll them in powdered sugar.

PRO TIP: Almond extract is very strong! It’s not like vanilla or other extracts, so you need to use it sparingly. It helps to use a brand like Nielsen-Massey that uses a cold-pressed method of extraction. Cold-pressing does a better job of preserving the almond’s natural compounds and leads to an extract that tastes less harsh.