This is the FIRST day of Just Enjoy Food’s 12 Days of Christmas Cookies. The recipe for Day 1 is Snowballs. I was new to the Snowball cookie before this year. I found the traditional recipe (full of gluten and sugars) when I was researching recipes to make for our church’s small group. We were going to hand the cookies out with coffee on a college campus and collectively decided to make the “regular” versions because the majority of college students don’t care. So I made the recipe the way it was written. I have to be honest, I haven’t cooked with wheat flour or sugars in over two years and I almost forgot how to do it. I am very used to (and comfortable with) using my nut and seed flours and my non-refined sweeteners. I’m walking proof that you can cook exclusively grain-free and be completely satisfied without any deprivation! But as I was making the Snowball cookies for church I couldn’t get the idea to make them healthy out of my mind. And a couple of days later I made a batch of these. And they are amazing!!
The traditional recipe calls to roll them in powdered sugar. Now, powdered sugar is out of the question, but I didn’t want to forgo the white topping because it’s way more pleasing to the eye. So what did I do… coated the tops in a little arrowroot powder. Arrowroot doesn’t taste at all, but gives a great white coating to the cookies!
“On the first day of Christmas Just Enjoy Food gave to me… a recipe for some snowball cookies” (Can’t you just hear it in the song)
Ingredients
2 sticks organic butter, softened
2 cups pecans, finely chopped (I use a food processor)
1/4 cup raw honey
1 teaspoon Stevita stevia (or omit and increase honey by 1 Tablespoon)
2 1/2 cups almond flour
3 Tablespoons coconut flour
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Arrowroot powder, to dust the top of the cookies
Directions
- Preheat oven to 325 degrees and butter a cookie sheet or lay parchment paper down
- In a medium bowl combine all ingredients and mix well with a hand mixer
- Using a cookie scoop, place the cookies put on a cookie sheet (12-16 per cookie sheet)
- Bake for 17-19 minutes, until golden brown
- After 5-10 minutes out of the oven and the cookies are cool to the touch, coat the top of the cookies with arrowroot powder to give them the look of powdered sugar
Makes about 3 dozen cookies
**We have also made these cookies with raw cashews instead of pecans and they turn out great. Our new favorite way is to make them with 1 cup cashews and 1 cup pecans.
- 2 sticks organic butter, softened
- 2 cups pecans, finely chopped
- ¼ cup raw honey
- 1 teaspoon Stevita stevia (or omit and increase honey by 1 Tablespoon)
- 2½ cups almond flour
- 3 Tablespoons coconut flour
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- Arrowroot powder, to dust the top of the cookies
- Preheat oven to 325 degrees and butter a cookie sheet or lay parchment paper down
- In a medium bowl combine all ingredients and mix well with a hand mixer
- Using a cookie scoop, place the cookies put on a cookie sheet (12-16 per cookie sheet)
- Bake for 17-19 minutes, until golden brown
- After 5-10 minutes out of the oven and the cookies are cool to the touch, coat the top of the cookies with arrowroot powder to give them the look of powdered sugar
Need More Christmas Cookie Recipes?
Day 1: Snowballs
Day 2: Date Pinwheels
Day 3: Coconut Cloud Cookies
Day 4: Pistachio Cranberry Icebox Cookies
Day 5: Soft Gingerbread Cookies
Day 6: Cut Out Cookies with Honey Almond Glaze
Day 7: Cashew Raspberry Thumbprints and Raspberry Refrigerator Chia Seed Jam
Day 8: Chai Tea Drop Cookies
Day 9: Walnut Acorn Cookies
Day 10: Spritz Cookies (Sugar-Free)
Day 11: Peanut Butter Coconut Cookies
Day 12: Nutella Stuffed Cookies and Homemade Nutella
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Marianne says
A yummy looking cookie! I don’t use powered sugar any more but I hadn’t thought of just using the arrowroot. I’ll have to remember that :)
Dr. Meghan Birt says
Thanks Marianne. I love arrowroot for its flexibility in so many recipes :).
Tamla Oneal says
Can You Sub The HoneY? I’m Vegan.
Dr. Meghan Birt says
Of course you could sup out the honey for another non-refined sweetener. (I bet dates would be awesome!!). You could even do more stevia!
Christina says
LOVE these! My favorite Christmas treat used to be Russian Tea Cakes and these totally taste like those, but BETTER! Way better! The only suggestion I have is to tighly shape them into balls then place on baking sheet, otherwise they flatten out into cookies. Second try was a charm :) Thanks Meg!!!
The Vegan Cookie Fairy says
Oh, these looks so lovely! I confess I’ve never really made ‘healthy’ cookies, and my cakes do tend to be full of sugar, but I’m interested in changing my baking habits. Does the arrowroot taste funny at all? I’ve never tried using it for dusting instead of sugar.
Dr. Meghan Birt says
Changing your baking to grain-free and more “healthified” can take some savvy, but it can be done and becomes more like second nature after a little while. The arrowroot powder, in my opinion, doesn’t have a flavor, just makes the cookies look so much better!