Chestnut Snowball Cookies

These chestnut snowball cookies are the ultimate, no-fuss Christmas cookie and they literally melt in your mouth!

They’re quick and easy to make, using just a few simple ingredients, creating the perfect soft, buttery shortbread centres with ground chestnuts and finished with a generous coating of icing sugar on the outside.

Traditional recipes use almonds, pecans or walnuts, but I made these with chestnuts. You can use whichever nuts you have in the larder, and they will still taste amazing.

These cookies are very similar to my walnut crescent biscuits, which are also really good and easy to make.

I love to bake a few different biscuits/cookies for Christmas and arrange them on a nice platter for when people drop by. If you’re looking for inspiration, check out these Christmas recipes: gingerbread, Viennese biscuits, cranberry lemon shortbread, cinnamon biscuits and Linzer Biscuits.

If you decide to give this recipe a try, let me know! Leave a comment below and rate it – it’s really helpful to me and the other readers. And don’t forget to take a picture and tag it #thegourmetlarder on Instagram. I love seeing what you come up with! 🙂

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INGREDIENTS

For this recipe all you need are these ingredients:

• Butter – adds structure and flavour. I use salted butter for most of my baking as it intensifies the flavours, but feel free to use unsalted if you prefer. Make sure it’s at room temperature before using.

• Caster sugar or icing sugar – adds sweetness and structure.

• Egg – medium size weighing around 50 gram per egg out of the shell. The egg creates structure, make sure it is at room temperature before using.

• Pure vanilla extract or paste – adds flavour and enhances the other ingredient flavours in the recipe.

– Vanilla recommendations: pure vanilla extract or vanilla paste or vanilla pods.

• Plain or all-purpose flour – to build structure, as we do not use any other raising agents.

• Ground chestnuts – add flavour, moisture, texture and structure to the recipe. If you can’t find ground chestnuts buy ready to eat cooked chestnuts and grind them in a food processor.

• Baking powder – is a raising agent that helps to create a light biscuit.

• Icing sugar – these bite-sized treats wouldn’t look like cute little snowballs without a generous coating of icing sugar.

TIP: I highly recommend adding a good pinch of fine salt to your biscuit doughs. In a seemingly absurd or self-contradictory way, salt intensifies the mouths’ ability to taste sweetness. It is the sodium that sends signals to move glucose into the sweet taste receptor cells, thus triggering the cells to register sweetness. The result is that salt not only alerts our ‘salt sensitivity’, but also triggers our ‘sweet sensitive’ taste buds.

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SUBSTITUTIONS

While I am making recommendations for alternative ingredients, I haven’t necessarily tried them. If you try making any adaptions, I would love to know how you get on and share it with the other readers.

GLUTEN-FREE OPTION

• Flour: replace the gluten flour with a 1:1 alternative gluten free flour, such as Doves Farm Free plain gluten free flour. If possible, choose a flour which contains xanthan gum or alternatively, add 1 tsp to your batter for stability. You can also try Doves Farm gluten free self-raising flour.

VEGAN OPTIONS

• Butter: I recommend Naturli vegan block or Flora plant-based block butter alternative.

• Egg – replace the egg with 2 teaspoons of water. The biscuits will be a little crunchier but still taste great.

SUGAR-FREE AND LOW-CALORIE OPTIONS

• Sugar-free or calorie reduced options: try powder alternatives such as coconut sugar, natural erythritol, xylitol, stevia or fructooligosaccharide powder instead. There are also sweetener mixes available, that are 70% calorie reduced and low in carb. Avoid using liquid sweeteners as this will imbalance the recipe and cause the dough to be a big sticky mess.

• Icing sugar suggestions: try alternatives such as Pure Via Baker’s icing sugar or Canderel Bake! sugar free icing sugar.

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WHAT VARIATIONS CAN I MAKE?

• Nuts – any type of nut that you have at home, almonds, walnuts, macadamia nuts, or hazelnuts all work well.

• Citrus flavours – try adding orange or lemon zest for a citrus hit.

• Spices – experiment with spices, such as cinnamon, nutmeg or cardamon.

• Extracts – if you use almonds, you can add almond extract to add emphasise the taste.

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NUTRITION

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STORAGE AND FREEZING

Store the coated and cooled cookies in an airtight container for 5-7 days at room temperature.

Freezing the cookie dough – freeze the dough balls on a baking tray or plate, lined with baking paper. Once the cookies have frozen solid, approx. 30 minutes, transfer them to a freezer-safe, airtight container. They will last up to 3 months in the freezer. Bake them from frozen, adding an additional 1 minute to the instructions above.

Freezing the baked cookies – roll the baked cookies in icing sugar and leave them to cool completely, then place them on a lined baking tray and place them in the freezer. When they have frozen solid, approx. 30 minutes, store them in a freezer-safe, airtight container for up to 1 month. When ready to serve, allow the cookies to reach room temperature.

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TOOLS YOU’LL NEED

Here are some kitchen equipment that I use and recommend for this recipe.

• Earthenware Mixing Bowl Mason Cash, Cream 29 cm Chip Resistant.

I like the sturdiness of this bowl and its 4 litre capacity means I can use it for mixing just about everything in the kitchen. It is also microwave, freezer and dishwasher safe.

• Mixing Bowls Set of 5, Stainless Steel Nesting Bowls with Airtight Lids, 3 Grater Attachments, Size 5, 3, 2, 1.5, 0.63 QT

These different size mixing bowls are really useful depending on the amount of food you are preparing. They also have airtight lids that fit snugly to seal and keep food fresh, so this set can be used as dry storage bowls with lids on. The plastic lid of the largest bowl has a removable centre. Where one of 3 graters can be used.

• 3 Plastic Mixing Bowls, Non-Slip Base, Soft Grip Handle, Microwave and Dishwasher Safe, Compact, Stackable, Ideal for baking and cooking, off-white, 1.5 Litre, 2 Litre, 2.5 Litre.

I do own a plastic mixing bowl but I am personally not a big fan of them. These 3 bowls are on the smaller size but good for the odd cake making.

• Silicone Baking Mat, Standard, 2 Count, 42 x 29.5 cm

I love using these baking mats. They stop everything sticking to the baking tray and are really easy to clean.

• Magimix 4200XL Compact Food Processor & Blender, 3 Bowls, 3L Capacity, Multifunctional 6 in 1

This is a really good food processor, I have used Maggie mix before, I think they are one of the best processes on the market. The blades are very sharp and I use it for breaking down biscuits, nuts and getting very smooth creams or dips. It does a really good job and its very quiet not as noisy some other brands. I recommend it to anybody who enjoys baking and cooking. They are a little on the expensive side but you pay for what you get.

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TIP: I highly recommend using metric measurements and a digital kitchen scale, rather than cup measurements. If you have ever ended up with dry, dense or crumbly baked goods, it might be because of inaccurate volume measurements, not all measuring cups are made equally. All my recipes on this blog are carefully developed so that you can easily recreate them in your own kitchen with success, using metric measurements. It is also a lot easier, less messy and you will get far better, consistent results. 🙂
If you are interested in understanding conversions, here you will find the best conversion chart.

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RECIPE TIPS

Use room temperature ingredients – this is really important; it makes it easier to work with and allows the ingredients to emulsify properly.

Avoid over baking the cookies – by keeping an eye on them towards the end of the baking time. All ovens are different and if these get over baked, they end up quite dry.

The dough should be a little sticky – avoid adding more flour to the recipe. Placing the dough in the fridge to rest for an hour will help it firm up and make be easier to roll.