Snowballs from a Snowball Native!

I absolutely LOVE snow! Although, I feel sorry for the folks in Minneapolis right now, since they are buried under about 20 inches of the stuff. I like just enough wet snow to blanket the ground, hang in the trees, and make a decent sized snowman.

I also love this new recipe I found for Snowball Cookies. They remind me of Danish Wedding Cookies that we used to purchase when the kids were still at home. The recipe isn't in the cookbook, so you'll have to copy and paste it to your word processor and save it to your recipe file or print a copy to keep in your kitchen. I'll post the recipe for you below just after the photo illustrations.

I've often been teased about growing up at SNOWBALL and going to school there. But, truly, it was one of the best things God could have ever done for me. I was blessed to have attended all 12 years of school there and to have had some of the best teachers in small classes where we got to know one another. I graduated Valedictorian in our Senior class of THREE! :-) And, all three of us went on to college or vocational school. My best friend received her degree in business from Arkansas Tech University in Russellville, and I received my B.S. degree in Medical Technology from the University of Arkansas Medical Sciences Campus in Little Rock. I often wonder how different life would have been had we attended school somewhere else.

One thing we enJOYed in that part of the state in the wintertime was bountiful snowfalls. I remember one January when we were out of school for three weeks in a row due to ice/snow covered roads. One disadvantage of living in the country where you use mostly dirt roads is that these are the last to clear when ice and snow covers them. Mountainous dirt roads complicate matters even more, and many of the bus routes followed mountain roads over to Richland Creek or down to the Buffalo River, so getting a bus to kids who lived in these areas was just about impossible and certainly too dangerous to risk the children's lives. So, we enJOYed many extended Christmas vacations in those days.

Another memory that came to mind when making these cookies was my mama's little white pantry cabinet that she stocked with extra flour, salt, sugar, powdered sugar, etc. Since we didn't keep candy and since Sunday was the only day Mama usually made desserts, my sweet tooth often found its way to that little cabinet when I arrived home from school in the afternoons. It's amazing that I have any teeth left, because I sneaked teaspoons of powdered sugar from Mama's reserve boxes until she had almost none remaining when she wanted to make icing for a cake or some other confection. More than once, I was told to stay out of the powdered sugar box with my teaspoon! I only wish I had known about Snowball Cookies in those days! What a YUMMY dessert I could have enJOYed! Hope you enJOY them as much as I do now.

Let's get started...

Here's what you'll need to put these together:

Butter, powdered sugar, vanilla, salt, flour,

finely chopped nuts (pecans or walnuts), semi-sweet mini-chocolate chips.

BEAT butter, sugar, vanilla, and salt in large mixer bowl until creamy.

Add flour one cup at a time, and gradually beat into the butter mixture until all is taken up.

Do not overbeat (just until all the flour is incorporated into the butter mixture).

Add finely chopped pecans or walnuts (I used walnuts---they are cheaper and just taste yummy!)

along with chocolate mini-morsels.

Use a spatula to stir in nuts and chocolate morsels.

Preheat your oven to 375 F. while you load your cookie sheet with dough.

Use a cookie dipper to portion out dough,

then roll each portion into balls and place on ungreased cookie sheet.

BAKE for 10 to 12 minutes. Sift powdered sugar over hot cookies on baking sheets.



Remove warm cookies to a bowl with more powdered sugar to roll and completely coat each cookie before placing on a lined countertop to cool completely.

EnJOY!!

SNOWBALLS

INGREDIENTS:

1 1/2 Cups (3 sticks) softened butter (salted)

3/4 Cup powdered sugar

2 tsp. vanilla extract

1/2 tsp salt

3 Cups all purpose flour

2 Cups (12 oz. pkg.) Semi-Sweet Chocolate Mini-Morsels

3/4 Cup finely chopped walnuts or pecans (I used walnuts)

Powdered Sugar for dusting



DIRECTIONS:

PREHEAT oven to 375 degrees F.



BEAT butter, sugar, vanilla, and salt in large mixer bowl until creamy. Adding flour one cup at a time, gradually beat into the butter mixture until all is taken up. Use a spatula to stir in nuts and chocolate morsels. Use a cookie dipper to portion out dough, then roll each portion into balls and place on ungreased cookie sheet.



BAKE for 10 to 12 minutes. Sift powdered sugar over hot cookies on baking sheets then remove to a bowl with more powdered sugar to completely coat each cookie before placing on a lined countertop to cool completely.