These cookies are a staple for my family every Christmas. So buttery and perfectly sweet, they are sure to become a family favorite!
These nutball cookies are so nostalgic for me. I have so many memories of making these every single year with my family around Christmas time! They are my absolute favorite Christmas cookie. They’re so buttery and deliciously sweet I can’t stand it! I make them small so I just pop, pop, pop away until I realize I’ve had bout ten in a row. So poppable and SO addicting!
These cookies have so many different names and I literally must live under a rock because for some reason I’ve never heard of another person making them until like, this year. I thought my family had my Grandma’s very special recipe. LOL! It turns out about a billion people have basically the same recipe and call them different names like Snowball Cookies, Russian Tea Cakes, and Italian Wedding Cookies. But for my family, they have always been called Nutballs.
Preparing these cookies takes only a few ingredients that you most likely have on hand and they’re a breeze to whip up! We always use very finely chopped walnuts in ours but you can use any kind of nut you want.
I hope you guys enjoy these perfect little buttery cookies as much as my family does!
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Nutball Cookies
Ingredients
1 cup unsalted butter, softened
- 1/2 cup granulated sugar
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 1/2 cup walnuts chopped very fine (or any nut of choice)
1/2 cup confectioner's sugar - for sprinkling
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper, set aside.
- Cream butter and sugar together until light and fluffy. Stir in vanilla. Add flour and stir until just incorporated. Fold in chopped nuts by hand. Pat dough into a large ball, wrap in plastic wrap and chill for at least one hour.
- Once chilled, roll dough into 1" rounded tablespoon balls and place them on prepared baking sheet. Repeat process until all dough is used. Bake cookies for 10-13 minutes or until just very lightly browned on the bottom.
- Allow cookies to cool for 5 minutes until cooled enough to handle. Now you have two options: you can roll each cookie in confectioner's sugar while they're still hot (not a fan) or you can do what I do, and that is to place cookies onto a wire rack with foil or something underneath to catch the excess, and then sprinkle the confectioner's sugar on top of them covering the top and sides with a sifter or a mesh strainer.
- Nutball Cookies will stay fresh for up to 7 days stored in an airtight container.
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oh my goodness this looks amazing. I was just saying how I needed to learn how to make some of these cookies. I will be buying the stuff to make these next grocery stop! Thanks
Wow, those look so good and would definitely be easy enough to make! I always feel like a lot of the time when recipes say “easy to make” there are still 30 ingredients and 25 different steps- not the case here. I just may have to try them out. Also, I like the name nutball cookies for them much better too- it is so much more interesting than the other names.
These look delicious! Having a family cookie tradition reminds me of our family making chocolate crinkles every christmas. I thought we were the only ones, but I’ve been seeing them a lot lately on pinterest. Looks like there’s a few names for them as well ๐ Hope you have a great New Year!
That’s too funny you did the same thing. I was so shocked, it’s like I’ve been living under a rock! Lol. Happy New Year to you!!
My mom made these this year – I have no idea what she called them, though! I tried one and I wasn’t a big fan – they just tasted dry. I’ll pass this recipe along to her, though – I have no idea where she found hers.
I am not a big fan of walnuts so I think I would choose pecans instead. I love make a cookies that are made only at Christmas. So very yummy
My sister makes these cookies every year and puts them in her goodie care package she sends out to everyone. Well, except this year. No goodie package boo. I guess she is just to tired this year, but there will always be next year. Great recipe! Thanks!
Oh my deliciousness!! I’ve been on a hunt for a simple, lard free version of this recipe so THANK YOU!! I’m thinking these will be a nice Happy New Year gift for the kids teachers. Any excuse to whip up a batch! ๐