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These gluten free snowball cookies, also known as Russian tea cakes and Mexican wedding cookies, are super tender butter cookies, made with chopped nuts and always covered in powdered sugar.
Table of Contents
- What makes this recipe for gluten free snowball cookies so special?
- Tips for getting these gluten free snowball cookies recipe right
- What sort of nuts work best in this recipe for gluten free snowball cookies
- Substitutions for gluten free snowball cookies ingredients
- How to make gluten free snowball cookies, step by step
- Gluten Free Snowball Cookies | they melt in your mouth! Recipe
What makes this recipe for gluten free snowball cookies so special?
Snowball cookies are somewhat fragile, compared to a classic chocolate chip cookie, for example. They tend to crumble, since they're really a type of shortbread cookie, and are meant to be delicate.
This recipe is special because it makes cookies that are properly fragile, and really do melt in your mouth with that beautiful buttery taste. But they're never dry, even with all that powdery sugar everywhere.
They're not neat and tidy cookies, but that's part of their charm. Imagine 3 of them perched on top of the pile in a holiday cookie box filled with all sorts of other colors and styles of cookies.
A dream holiday cookie box for me would have a handful of these gluten free Russian tea cakes/snowball cookies, just 2 gluten free gingerbread men (or women!), some of our other best gluten free cookies, but at least one gorgeous gluten free rainbow cookie. So beautiful right next to the snowballs!
Tips for getting these gluten free snowball cookies recipe right
Now that we have that out of the way, let's talk about these amazing buttery delight gluten free snowball cookies! Much like the whipped shortbread cookies that we made the other week, these incredibly simple cookies are a mixture of butter, flour/starch, and sugar, but this time we're adding finely chopped nuts to the mix.
They still melt in your mouth, though, since the nuts should be very finely chopped. I chop mine in a miniature food processor or a blender.
Be sure not to continue grinding until you have a flour, as you want the nuts to provide a bit of texture and not to completely disappear into the batter.
What sort of nuts work best in this recipe for gluten free snowball cookies
When I use mostly raw pecans to make these snowball cookies (a.k.a. Mexican Wedding Cookies or Russian Tea Cakes), I grind the nuts a little more coarsely since pecans are such a soft nut. When I use almonds, I grind them more finely.
You don't want the cookies to have any noisy crunch, which would all but ruin the overall silky smooth texture. So it's really best to use nuts that are tender, even when raw.
Substitutions for gluten free snowball cookies ingredients
As always, unless I specifically state otherwise, I haven’t tested these cookies with any substitutions. These are just my best-educated guesses:
Gluten free dairy free snowball cookies
I haven’t tried it, but I bet these cookies would work just fine with butter-flavored Spectrum non-hydrogenated vegetable shortening in place of the butter.
Gluten free corn free snowball cookies
I recommend trying potato starch as a substitute for cornstarch in the recipe. Since most confectioners’ sugar is made using cornstarch, you’ll also have to source a corn-free version of that ingredient.
A fellow reader has mentioned in the past that Trader Joe's has a corn-free confectioners' sugar, but I haven't investigated that personally. It's worth a look, though!
If you use a gluten free flour blend that is already high in starch, like Cup4Cup, replace the cornstarch gram for gram with more Cup4Cup.
What about making these gluten free snowball cookies without nuts?
If you can't have/won't have/don't want to have nuts, instead of these snowball cookies, I recommend my meltaway cookies. Or my whipped shortbread cookies.
They're both very similar in taste and texture, but naturally nut-free! The nuts provide a depth of flavor to these cookies, but the other cookies of course have their own merits. You really can't lose.
How to make gluten free snowball cookies, step by step
Gluten Free Snowball Cookies | they melt in your mouth!
Ingredients
- 1 ½ cups 210 g all purpose gluten free flour (I like Better Batter here)
- ¾ teaspoon xanthan gum, omit if your flour blend already contains it
- 10 tablespoons 90 g cornstarch
- 1 cup 115 g confectioners’ sugar, plus more for dusting
- ¼ teaspoon kosher salt
- ¾ cup + 1 tablespoon, 90 g finely chopped raw pecans and/or almonds
- 16 tablespoons 224 g unsalted butter, at room temperature
- 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
- Lukewarm water, by the teaspoonful as necessary
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 375°F. Line a large rimmed baking sheet with unbleached parchment paper and set it aside.
- In a large bowl, place the flour, xanthan gum, cornstarch, 2/3 cup confectioners’ sugar (77 g) and salt, and whisk to combine well. Add the finely chopped nuts and whisk again to combine.
- Add the butter and vanilla, and mix until well-combined. I find that pressing down on the butter with the back of a spoon helps to distribute it throughout the dough.
- The cookie dough will look somewhat sandy, and will clump in places. Add water by the teaspoonful, mixing after each addition, and mix to combine until the dough holds together when scoop or squeezed.
- Scoop the dough by the heaping tablespoon (an overfull #70 ice cream scoop is ideal here, but two spoons work well, too) onto the prepared baking sheet, leaving about 1 1/2-inches between pieces.
- Roll each piece of dough into a round gently between the palms of your hands. Don’t pack the dough; just shape it.
- Place the remaining 1/3 cup (38 g) confectioners’ sugar in a small bowl and place the balls of dough, one at a time, in the sugar. Toss to coat completely in the sugar and return to the baking sheet.
- Place the baking sheet in the freezer for about 5 minutes or until the cookie dough is firm.
- Place in the center of the preheated oven and bake until the cookies are set in the center and firm to the touch (they will be fragile, but shouldn’t be wet), about 12 minutes.
- Sometime between 10 and 12 minutes, the cookies will take on a slightly crackled appearance on top. Remove the baking sheet from the oven and allow to cool completely before rolling in more confectioners’ sugar (optional) and serving.
- These cookies can be stored for at least 3 days in a sealed glass container at room temperature. For longer storage, seal tightly in a freezer-safe container and place in the freezer.
- For best results, don’t toss in extra confectioners’ sugar before freezing. Defrost completely at room temperature before tossing in sugar a final time.
Video
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
These cookies just made the holidays for my gluten free daughter who was feeling sad about not having her favorite cookie. It appears that if you use a #70 scoop which is approximately 1 T, you get 48 cookies instead of the listed 24… an added surprise. Will have to make more. I barely got one to try!
Aw, Barb, that’s so sweet. Happy holidays from my gluten free family to yours. :)
Nicole,
I need your advice please on a totally different topic ie bread making but don’t know to get in touch with you hence this message on this thread.
Is there another address I can contact you on.
Many thanks
Brian
Hi, Brian,
You can use the “questions” form to contact me, but I’m afraid I don’t check those emails very frequently and have an assistant who responds to most emails. I’m afraid I’m not available for individual consultations, but if you’re on Facebook you should try joining my Facebook group as there are tons of helpful fellows readers who can likely help as well. Here’s a link to the group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/everythinggfoas/
Thanks for the recipe as Russian Tea Cakes was one of the 1st cookies I learned to bake as a child. Since going GF I had to abstain from it. I am also going sugar free. Will Stevia work with this recipe and in what proportion? Thanks again!
Hi, Reggie,
I’m afraid that Stevia won’t work, no. I would recommend Swerve alternative sweetener since they even have a confectioners’ sugar variety. I bet it would work great.
Made double recipe of your one bowl choc. cake last week for a birthday cake. Help! It didn’t turn out. Rose really high in oven , then slowly sank. I weigh my ingred.
Thanks for any help.
Lois, when a cake rises rapidly and then falls, it usually due to a too-hot oven. Most ovens run hot, which is why I always recommend using an oven thermometer. That, and if you didn’t use one of my recommended flour blends or made any other substitutions, you’re essentially creating a new recipe that wasn’t properly balanced. Good luck!
What a delightful recipe, tho i will have to tweak it a bit…can’t have the sugar. But, your daughter is absolutely beautiful! She looks just like her mom…. Thank her for being the taste-tester…..she was obviously pleased!
Thank you, Barbara! If you can’t have sugar, I would recommend Swerve alternative sweetener since they even have a confectioners’ sugar variety. I bet it would work great. And thank you so much for the kind words about my daughter. I will be sure to thank her. My children are all 3 my guinea pigs!
These look good, every year I make Kourabiedes — greek celebration cookies, with either finely minced walnuts or almonds… if i get a chance I may try these this year. Though I still sometimes can’t resist some food with gluten in it (my husband doesn’t follow being GF), I realize more and more that I PAY FOR IT. So I’m anxious to try these, I made a GF apple coffee cake that is really great, dear husband doesn’t even know it’s GF. Thanks for your recipes!
Don’t cheat, Ruthie! Just make things that are GF like this that are good enough for everyone. Take care of yourself!
I just made these and instead of using vanilla extract, I had almond extract and the cookies came out great. I did forget to put them in the freezer before baking. Can’t wait to make them again for Christmas for my family. Thank you Nichol for sharing.
I love love almond extract, Melissa. I’m always looking for ways to use it. Great idea!
Why not toast and cool the nuts before baking?? I would think it kuldip enhance the flavor.
Feel free to do that, Dena! They’re chopped very fine so I didn’t consider it necessary, but there’s no harm in doing that if you’d like.
I operate a restaurant so I don’t always read every word, but as I’ve said before your recipes are ALWAYS absolutely great. For some reason this morning I read the whole thing. Some things did NOT occur to me before but it has never bothered me and of course it makes perfect sense!
We make these every day here and I’m super excited to use this recipe for my DH and my GF customers. Thanks!!
Thanks, Teril! I’m glad you have so much success with my recipes. :)