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

PRINT RECIPE

Servings 26 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.