These Butterball Cookies (or Snowball Cookies / Russian Tea Cakes) are easy to make and taste amazing. A given for Christmas, they taste just as delicious year round. With chopped hazelnuts for a crunchy touch.
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Snowballs, Russian Tea Cakes, Mexican Wedding Cookies or Butterball Cookies... whichever name you know them by, you know these little powdery cookies are just plain delicious. They have always been one of my favorite Christmas cookies and they're a very popular cookie for the holidays.
Why you will love this recipe
- It's easy with a few simple steps
- Basic ingredients you probably already have at home
- So delicious you can never have just one
- A crunchy touch from chopped hazelnuts
- A layer of melted sugar covered in more powdered sugar for a delicious cookie that looks super cute
- Perfect for the holidays with their wintery "snowball" look
What you need to make them
Ingredient notes & substitutions
- Butter: I used salted butter, if you use unsalted butter add an extra pinch of salt
- Confectioners sugar is not the exact same as powdered sugar (confectioners sugar has a little bit of added cornstarch to avooid caking), but for this recipe you can use either
- Vanilla sugar can be swapped for vanilla extract or vanilla powder
How to make them
- Place softened butter and powdered sugar in a large mixing bowl and mix well. This is easiest with an electric mixer.
- Sift in flour mixed with vanilla sugar with the butter mixture
- Add salt
- Mix as well as possible
- You probably won't be able to mix it all the way using your machine
- Use your hands to keep mixing the dough
- Mix until everything is well combined
- Add chopped hazelnuts
- Work the dough with your hands, until everything is well combined and you can form a large ball from the entire dough
- Wrap the ball in plastic and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes
- Roll dough into 40 1-inch (2.5 cm) balls
- Place on a lined cookie sheet
- Bake in a preheated oven at 400°F (200°C) for 10 minutes, until done all the way through and just lightly browned
- Let them cool down 1-2 minutes, and as soon as they are cool enough to touch, roll the warm cookies in powdered sugar
- Place on a large plate, set aside and let cool down entirely
- Once they are completely cool, roll them in powdered sugar a second time
Tips & tricks
- Chop the nuts - don't be tempted to grind them, or the balls can end up dry
- If the dough does not want to come together or keeps falling apart when rolling - add a bit more butter
- Choose your size for the nuts or mix sizes, to keep it interesting
- Roll the cookies twice in powdered sugar - the first layer melts, and the second layer sits on top giving them that cute snowball look
- Prep ahead by making the dough the day before and refrigerating it over night
- Cook time can vary with your oven - they can take anything from 8-12 minutes
- Store butterball cookies in an airtight container for up to 1 week
- Freeze butterball cookies to keep them for up to 3 months
Recipe FAQ
Yes, Butterball Cookies are great to freeze. Just let them thaw in room temperature before eating.
If your Butterball Cookies turn out flat, this is due to the wrong butter/sugar/flour ratio. If you use too much butter or sugar, or too little flour, the cookies can end up flat. This can also happen if you use melted butter instead of softened butter.
Follow this recipe exactly and you should not have this problem.
There are multiple ways to soften butter for baking cookies, here are my top 3:
1. Keep it in room temperature until soft - cut in pieces first and it will be faster
2. Grate the butter or slice it thin using a cheese grater, and you will have softened butter immediately
3. Microwave it - but keep a close eye on it so it doesn't melt instead
More easy holiday baking recipes
Looking for more easy holiday recipes?
- Cinnamon Cookies
- Cocoa Powder Cookies
- Candy Cane Cupcakes
- Traditional Swedish Lussekatter
- Dark Chocolate Salted Caramel Meringues
Did you love this recipe? Rate it five stars!
...and let me know what you loved about it in the comments.
Recipe
Butterball Cookies
Print RateIngredients
- 1 cup salted butter softened and cut in pieces
- ½ cup confectioners sugar or powdered sugar
- 2¼ cups flour
- 2 teaspoon vanilla sugar
- ½ teaspoon fine table salt
- ¾ cups hazelnuts chopped
After baking
- 1 cup confectioners sugar or powdered sugar
Instructions
- In a large bowl, combine the softened butter with the confectioners sugar. Mix well.1 cup salted butter, ½ cup confectioners sugar
- In another bowl, mix the vanilla sugar with the flour. Then sift this into the butter and sugar mixture. Add salt. Mix well, until everything is combined. You will need to use your hands for this.2 teaspoon vanilla sugar, 2¼ cups flour, ½ teaspoon fine table salt
- Add chopped hazelnuts. Mix, using your hands, until you can shape the whole dough into a large ball. Wrap in plastic and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes.¾ cups hazelnuts
- Preheat oven for 400°F (200°C) and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
- Bring out the refrigerated dough, and roll into 40 1 inch (2.5 cm) balls. Place on the lined baking sheet and bake in the middle of the over for 10 minutes, until cooked through and just slightly browned.
- Bring out the cookies from the oven and let them cool down for 1-2 minutes. As soon as they are cool enough to touch, roll them in confectioners sugar and set aside for now.1 cup confectioners sugar
- When the cookies have cooled down completely, roll them in confectioners sugar once again.1 cup confectioners sugar
Equipment (may contain affiliate links)
- Measuring cups (metric or US)*
- Plastic wrap
Video
Notes
Ingredients notes & substitutions
- Butter: I used salted butter, if you use unsalted butter add an extra pinch of salt
- Confectioners sugar is not the exact same as powdered sugar (confectioners sugar has a little bit of added cornstarch to avooid caking), but for this recipe you can use either
- Vanilla sugar can be swapped for vanilla extract or vanilla powder
Tips & tricks
- Chop the nuts - don't be tempted to grind them, or the balls can end up dry
- Choose your size for the nuts or mix sizes, to keep it interesting
- Roll the cookies twice in powdered sugar - the first layer melts, and the second layer sits on top giving them that cute snowball look
- Prep ahead by making the dough the day before and refrigerating it over night
- Cook time can vary with your oven - they can take anything from 8-12 minutes
- Store butterball cookies in an air tight container for up to 1 week
- Freeze butterball cookies to keep them for up to 3 months
Nutrition
Nutritional information is approximate and automatically calculated, and should only be viewed as an indication.
Leanne
The temperature is a bit high for my oven. They didn’t get done all the way thru and are hard on the bottom. Try again in the morning. 🫤
Emmeline Kemperyd
Hi Leanne,
That sounds weird! Are you by any chance using a gas oven? Sounds like something is up with the heating, like the bottom heat is higher than the top?
/Emmeline
Rebecca
My cookie dough was so dry, that I couldn't shape into balls at all. I added more butter but then, of course, they flattened out in the oven. They tasted good but what could have been wrong with my dough?
Emmeline Kemperyd
Hi Rebecca, sorry to hear that! Did you measure the butter with a scale or using cups? If using cups it's often difficult to get the exact amount correct, and my guess would be that you added too little butter to start. I've also heard that there are quality issues with butter this year, a lot of people have trouble with doughs they have made succesfully for years - so this could also be a reason why. /Emmeline
Meg
I love that you included the ingredients in the instructions! So much easier than having scroll back and forth! Happy holidays!
lindy
Just made these for xmas. Fun easy recipe and turned out great!
Emmeline Kemperyd
Happy to hear that, Lindy! Merry Christmas!
Trisha
I'm going to make these asap and for the holidays ~
Pina
You forgot to provide the quantity of each ingredient what good as a recipe if you don’t give the quantities.. You cannot make snowball cookies without ingredients therefore where are you quantities in your recipe you do not list them at all
Emmeline Kemperyd
Hi Pina! All quantities are in the recipe card at the bottom of the post. Just double checked and it shows up for me at least, please let know if you’re still not seeing it! /Emmeline