Recipe for Sugar-free Chocolate Chip Snowball Cookies
You will love this sugar-free Christmas cookie recipe for chocolate chip snowball cookies. They literally melt in your mouth and are stuffed with miniature chocolate chips and toasted pecans, then rolled in sugar-free icing sugar.
Ingredients
- 1/3 cup whole pecans toasted 42g
- 1 cup unsalted good quality butter 226g
- 3/4 cup sugar- free powdered sugar 78g
- 1 tbsp vanilla paste
- 1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt use less if using salted butter
- 1 tablespoon cornstarch sifted
- 1 3/4 cups white flour sifted, 211 g
- 1/2 tsp cinnamon optional
- 1/4 tsp freshly ground nutmeg
- 1/4 tsp ground anise seeds optinal
- 3/4 cup miniature sugar-free dark chocolate chips 140g , link in text
- 1 cup sugar-free icing sugar for coating I use Swerve, link in text
Instructions
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Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Spread the pecan nuts in an even layer on the sheet pan. Bake them until fragrant for about 5-7 minutes. Watch them carefully, you don't want to burn them. Remove them and allow them to cool completely before transferring them to a mini food processor or spice mill. Pulse or finely chop. You want a powder with some very small pieces left. Avoid over-pulsing or you'll end up with pecan butter. I add a tbsp of flour to the nuts to prevent this.
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Either in a bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment OR a large bowl combine room temperature butter and 3/4 cup sugar-free powdered sugar. Cream together until smooth and creamy, about 3 minutes.
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Add the vanilla, salt, cornstarch, and pecans. Beat the mix until smooth and combined. Now, stir together sifted flour and spices and add the flour mix to the butter mix. Beat slowly, until just combined and smooth. Add in sugar-free chocolate chips and mix until combined. I switch to a spatula at this point to avoid overmixing.
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Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and put it in the fridge for 1 to 2 hours to chill and firm up.
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Line a sheet pan with a Silpat liner. Measure out cookie dough using a 1 tablespoon for each ball and roll into cookie balls. Place them on the sheet. They do not spread too much. 3 cm space between each cookie should be plenty. If the cookie dough gets too warm from being rolled or sitting in a warm kitchen, return it to the fridge or the freezer. Pop the baking sheet into the freezer for 10 to 15 minutes before baking. While chilling, preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.
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Bake for 8-11 minutes. I find the sweet spot is 10 minutes. Remove the sheet from the oven, and let cookies stand on tray for 2-3 minutes. Fill a bowl with 1 cup of sugar-free icing sugar. Now cover each cookie with icing sugar by placing them in the sugar and dusting it with sugar. They should still be warm.
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Place cookies on a wire cooling rack. Let cool down a few more minutes and then roll in the powdered sugar again.
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Store them in an airtight container. They are best after 2 days and should be consumed within a week.
Recipe Notes
- The pecans need to be cooled completely before grinding them. To prevent them from turning to butter, I add a tbsp of the flour I have already measured out.
- If you live in a hot climate and you notice your cookie dough is getting too soft as you roll the cookies, put the bowl back into the fridge and let it firm up.
- The snowball cookies need to be 100% cold and firm before going in the oven, or they will burn and spread!
- They actually taste best after a couple of days during which the flavors get time to deepen and meld together.
- As we are working with small amounts, I use a mini food processor to pulse the pecans. I chopped them rather finely as we like them that way. If yours are a bit coarser, that is fine. Watch carefully when pulsing, the pecans can go from small pieces to pecan butter within seconds!
- I recommend you use Silpat baking mat for this recipe for snowball cookies. Otherwise, they’ll spread too much or get overly browned bottoms.
- To get them just perfect, double-dip your snowball cookies in powdered sugar! Once while they are still warm - literally as soon as you can move them without breaking. Then dip them again for another final coat. This double-dipping ensures thoroughly powder-coated Snowball cookies.
- Store them in an airtight container at room temperature. Re-roll in additional powdered sugar as needed.
- These are best eaten within a week.