Peppermint Snowball Cookies
Snowball cookies are a buttery festive cookie perfect for the Christmas season. While traditional snowball cookies are fun for Christmas on their own, you can really play up these festive cookies by making them peppermint snowball cookies and turning them into the perfect cookie for Christmas parties and to leave for Santa on Christmas eve.
Not only are these peppermint snowball cookies super festive, they are incredibly easy to make with only a small handful of ingredients and no decorating needed.
I love baking all the cookies this time of year. I wish I had time devote to elaborately decorated cut out cookies covered in intricate royal icing designs. But… that’s not my reality.
The boys keep me busy. The holiday season keeps me busy. And the 8 week old fluff of a puppy I just adopted… well she keeps me pretty busy too.
So instead of elaborate cookies, I keep it simple and fun with recipes like these peppermint snowball cookies.
This recipe is such a winner in my book. It’s really just as easy to make as traditional snowball cookies, but it feels infinitely more Christmasy because of the peppermint flavor and fun red color.
Just look at that pop of red in that bite of cookie. It makes me feel like I have successfully decorated these snowballs for the holiday. You know, made them a little extra.
And isn’t that what the holiday season is all about?
The best part of making these peppermint snowballs a tad extra is that they require virtually no extra time and effort to doll up for the holiday season.
All you need is two extra ingredients to turn regular snowball cookies into these little gems. You just need a couple of drops of red food coloring and peppermint extract in the dough.
And speaking of the dough, it is so easy to put together. All you need to do is let some butter sit on your counter to bring it to room temperature and cream it together with some powdered sugar and the peppermint extract.
Then whisk together the flour and salt and add it to the butter and sugar mixture, beating until just combined.
Last but not least, add the food coloring and stir until it reaches the desired color.
After your dough is put together, pop your dough into the fridge and let it chill for about a half an hour.
Then, when the dough is nice and chilled and firm enough to work with, scoop out 1 tablespoon portions of dough and roll them into roughly equal sized balls.
Place them on a prepared cookie sheet and bake at 375 for about 8 minutes.
When they come out of the oven, do your best not to devour them all right away. Instead let the cookies cool for a few minutes on the tray and then add them to a large plastic bag.
Pour the remaining confectioner’s sugar into the bag.
Then very important: seal the bag so you don’t make a mess and give the bag a shake so the confectioner’s sugar sticks to the cookies.
Then just like that, you have a perfect plate of easy, perfectly decorated peppermint snowballs that will please the whole family, and Santa to boot, without lots of extra work.
Other Christmas Themed Cookies You Might Also Enjoy:
- Santa Hat Cookies
- Holiday Themed Nutella Haystack Cookies
- Grinch Cookies
- Christmas Wreath Cookies
- Super Soft Eggnog Cookies
If you’ve tried this PEPPERMINT SNOWBALL COOKIES recipe, or any other recipe on the site, let me know in the comment section how it turned out, we love hearing from our readers! You can also follow along with me on PINTEREST, FACEBOOK, and INSTAGRAM to see more amazing recipes and whatever else we’ve got going on!
Peppermint Snowball Cookies
Ingredients
- 2 sticks 1 cup salted butter, softened to room temperature
- 2/3 cup + 1 1/2 cups confectioners sugar divided
- 2 1/4 cups flour
- 1/4 tsp. kosher salt
- 1 tsp. pure peppermint extract
- red or pink food dye
Instructions
- In the bowl of a stand mixer, cream together butter and 2/3 cup confectioners sugar until smooth. Add flour, salt, and peppermint extract and beat just until combined. Add food coloring until dough is the desired color.
- Cover bowl in plastic wrap and chill in the fridge for 30 minutes. Preheat oven to 375F and line a large cookie sheet with parchment paper.
- Scoop 1-tbsp. balls of dough and roll into uniform balls. Place cookies on the prepared cookie sheet and bake for 8 minutes, until bottoms are slightly browned. Allow cookies to cool on the pan for 5 - 10 minutes.
- Pour 1 1/2 cups confectioners sugar in a large Ziploc bag. Add a few cookies to the bag and shake to coat. Return to the cookie sheet and repeat with remaining cookies. Repeat this step again and let cookies cool completely. Once cooled, dust with a little more confectioners sugar and serve.
This recipe was shared at Fiesta Friday, The Weekend Potluck, and Meal Plan Monday.
These look yummy. Are they freezable?
They are! After thawing though, you’re going to want/need to re roll them in the powdered sugar though to restore their former appearance.
How many cookies will this make?
about 4 dozen, give or take a few depending on the exact size 🙂
Love that bright red color, so pretty! And yummy, too, I presume 😉