Snowball cookies are a holiday staple for a lot of people, I know. All those years of tradition, probably watching your Mom or your Grandma rolling them in the powdered sugar, or maybe your kids watched you. Then the first bite into one, when it is still a little warm, and you feel that burst of cool sweetness on your tongue, followed by the rich, buttery yumminess inside. This is a lot to mess with I know, but bear with me, because these are worth putting aside your traditional prejudice just a bit.
I found a similar recipe in a magazine, but I wasn’t happy with it, so I went back to my own old standby [still in my Mom’s handwriting, from 30-something years ago when she first handed these and a bunch of other Christmas cookies into my keeping] and changed it up a little to come close to what I thought they should be like. And, am I ever glad that I did! These are flat out wonderful – just as rich as the originals, but with a nice spicy twang. Then you bite into a little piece of the ginger and suddenly you are thinking that tradition ain’t all it’s cracked up to be.
Mincing up crystallized ginger is not a whole lot of fun. It sticks to itself and to the edge of the knife, and kind of makes a mess. I sprinkle it liberally with sugar, get it into smallish pieces with a chef’s knife and then toss it into the food processor. You have to be careful not to leave it whirling in there too long though, or it will get soft and start sticking together even worse. Eventually I decide that “minced” is a relative term, and go for chopped up pretty darned good. The nuts you will want to do in a food processor for sure – they should be ground pretty finely.
1 cup soft butter
1 & 1/2 cup confectionary [10x] sugar
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 & 1/2 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 ground cinnamon
1/4 ground allspice
1/2 salt
1/2 cup ground nuts [pecans, walnuts or almonds]
1/3 cup finely chopped crystallized ginger
This is a typical butter cookie recipe. Cream the butter in your mixing bowl with either a stand mixer or hand mixer. Beat in the sugar until fluffy, and then the egg and vanilla. Mix in 1 & 1/2 cups of flour and the remaining ingredients. Then mix in the last cup of flour, until it is completely incorporated. Chill the dough for at least a couple hours. The colder the dough, the less it will spread out while it is baking, which lets the cookies keep a rounder shape. When it is completely chilled, portion out evenly – I used a small [2 teaspoon size] cookie scoop or disher, and roll each cookie into a ball. Place the balls on a baking sheet that has been lined with parchment paper or is well greased with shortening. Bake at 350 degrees for about 12 minutes, turning the sheet pan half way through. They will be just slightly browned. Let them cool for a couple minutes, and then roll each one in a bowl of powdered sugar, coating all sides. Cool on a rack for an hour or so and then roll in powdered sugar again. Store in an airtight container. Makes 3 & 1/2 dozen cookies.
See? Luscious! 
And, if you want to make sure the traditionalists are satisfied too – there is nothing stopping you from making the old standbys as well. That recipe is here: Pecan Snowballs.
This photo, I think, aptly demonstrates the level of our industry and how busy we were. It takes real effort to make this much of a mess out of the kitchen you know. Saturday was obviously the logical time to make the muffins, so we could take out time and get some great photos of the whole thing, right? Unfortunately, as the week went on, we procrastinated more and more things to Saturday. Louise was getting ready to launch a new blog, and we were going to take some photos of her dogs learning something or other for the new blog, and I forget what else. Nearly everything that didn’t involve eating, going shopping or sitting around doing nothing got moved to Saturday. What we actually did on Saturday was to spend several hours going out to lunch with some friends. Then we came home and got Louise’s new website up and running. You should go check it out 
Don’t you hate it when you allow yourself to just get totally swamped? So much to do that there is just no way that you can possibly get everything done? Yeah – me too. That’s what happened to me last week. Something had to give, so I had to let blogging go for a few days. But not baking cookies for Christmas. You should be really really glad about that too, because these cookies? They might be my favorites of all time, seriously. We started with dried sour cherries, went on to add bittersweet chocloate chips and finally, toasted hazelnuts, all held together in rich, chewy blondie-like bar. Ridicoulously easy and sooooooooo good. Did I mention that they are good? Now, if you have had a really busy week like me, you want to begin by fortifying yourself. Take a dried sour cherry, and with a sharp knife, make a little slit. Now take one of your chocolate chips and kind of smooch it inside the cherry. Pop it in your mouth and savor that flavor combo, anticipating the yumminess to come. Repeat the process until you feel ready to go on with the rest of the recipe.
Mix together
Mix in 2 eggs, one at a time
Add and mix well
Then mix in the 1/2 cup each of dreid sour cherries, bittersweet chocolate chips and chopped, toasted hazlenuts. [you can use whatever nuts you like, but toasting them first is a good idea – they will be more flavorful and stay crunchy longer]
Spread the dough evenly in a well greased 10 inch square baking dish. I used my old stand-by Pyrex dish that we got for a wedding present lo these many years ago. An 8 inch square dish will work too, but you may have to cook them a few minutes more, and of course the bars are going to be a bit thicker.
Bake at 350 degrees for 25 to 30 minutes. When they are done, the top will be very nicely browned and toothpick inserted in them will come out clean. Unless you hit a chocolate chip, of course, and then the toothpick will be all covered in melty chocolate. Lick that off, and try again. No – with a fresh toothpick, not the same one! Cool on a wire rack and then cut in bars or squares and store in an airtight container.
You did hear me mention that these are stupendous, right? ‘Cause I wasn’t making that up!
I know – I have been lax about posting this week. The little matter of my job actually expecting me work [can you imagine?], a side project I am getting ready to roll out, and getting caught up from a week away. And there is some kind of holiday coming up too isn’t there? That means getting some beautiful Christmas-ey treats baked up to share. You will start seeing those next week. These little sweets were born out of a sudden desire for something apple, when I didn’t have a lot of time to fool around. Once the puff pastry was thawed, they took just minutes to throw together and about 35 minutes to bake. This could be adapted for pears or peaches, and the walnuts can be changed to suit your taste. And, come to think of it, they would make a nice addition to Christmas breakfast, wouldn’t they?
Generously grease a 12 muffin tin. I used baking spray, but butter would be nice too. Gently stretch or roll out slightly each square and fit them down into the cups on the muffin tin.
While the pastry is thawing, you can throw together this simple filling. You can do the chopping and mixing by hand if you like and if you have the time, but I used the food processor. Pulse it until everything is blended and the apples are the size you want.
Wet finger slightly and draw the points of the puff pastry together, pinching to seal ends together. Sprinkle generously with granulated or raw sugar 
Bake at 350 degrees for about 35 minutes, until filling is bubbly and the pastry is very puffed and golden. Remove immediately to a cooling rack. If you leave them in the pan to cool, they will stick, so get them out right away.
Let them cool at least 10 minutes or so before serving, or the filling will be too hot to eat. These are best served the same day you make them, though you can stretch it one day, by sealing into an airtight container. They are so luscious, no one will believe how easy they are!
