Powdered Sugar Almond Cookies

These Powdered Sugar Almond Cookies also known as almond snowball cookies, are nut cookies covered in powdered sugar. They're a holiday classic and are guaranteed to make your cookie tray look festive!

If you're preparing a cookie tray for this holiday season you'll want to include these Powdered Sugar Almond Cookies which are made with ground and toasted almonds.

They're a classic and delicate cookie, and though they're covered in icing sugar, they're not overly sweet.

This cookie is found in many parts of the world and is often made with different nuts. In fact, you can often find a variation of them served during the holidays.

If you don't have any almonds on hand, feel free to use walnuts or pecans in their place or a combination of nuts like I did in this recipe for Hazelnut and Almond Crescents.

How to Make Ground Almond Cookies

This Powdered Sugar Almond Cookie recipe is so easy to make and with so few ingredients you couldn't ask for better. 

Here's an overview of the ingredients and steps needed to make these delicious cookies. For the full recipe and directions please see the recipe card at the end of this post.

Ingredients Overview:

• Raw Almond. You will need both raw almonds and toasted almonds for this recipe. See tip below to see how to toast the almonds.
• All-purpose flour
• Unsalted butter 
• Pure almond extract
• Pure vanilla extract
• Salt
• Confectioner (powdered) sugar icing

Tip: To toast almonds, preheat the oven to 325°F. Spread the raw almonds on a cookie sheet in a single layer. Toast almonds stirring every few minutes. Almonds are toasted when they are fragrant and lightly browned, it should take between 8 to 10 minutes.

Steps Overview:

1. Position a rack in the center of the oven and pre-heat it.
2. Line the baking sheets with parchment paper and set them aside.
3. Using a food processor, use the pulse function to chop the raw almonds until they are finely ground.
4. Once the toasted almonds have cooled, chop them finely but make sure they are more coarse in texture than the ground almonds.
5. In a medium bowl, combine the ground almonds, flour, finely chopped almonds and salt. Set aside.
6. In the bowl of your stand mixer, fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the butter and 1/2 cup of the icing sugar until well blended and fluffy.
7. With the mixer on low speed, add the ground almond mixture, almond and vanilla extracts. Mix until well combined, scraping the sides of the bowl a couple of times.
8. Using a cookie scoop, scoop out balls of dough. Shape each cookie by rolling the dough between your hands. Arrange cookies 1 inch apart onto the baking sheets.
9. Bake cookies until the bottoms are golden and tops are slightly coloured and firm to the touch.
10. Let the cookies cool on the sheet for about 5 minutes and then roll each one into the sifted icing sugar.
11. Once the cookies have cooled completely roll them a second time in the icing sugar.

How to Store

These almond cookies freeze really well, just store them in an airtight container with wax paper in between the layers of cookies. Remove them from the freezer a few hours before serving.

Right before plating them sift a little more powdered sugar on them to get them looking nice and snowy.

Enjoy!

More Cookies for the Holiday Season

• Chocolate Walnut Cookies
• Chocolate Peppermint Sugar Cookies
• Matcha Green Tea Sugar Cookies
• Pistachio and Cranberry Biscotti
• Rolled Baklava

Powdered Sugar Almond Cookies

Author: Recipe adapted from Ricardo’s Holiday Issue 2014

These Powdered Sugar Almond Cookies are made with ground and toasted almonds. They're a delicate, not overly sweet classic cookie often served during the holidays.

4.38 from 8 votes

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Prep Time 40 mins

Cook Time 15 mins

Total Time 55 mins

Course Dessert, Dessert/ snack

Cuisine Western

Servings 50 cookies

Calories 88 kcal

Ingredients

  

1x2x3x

• 1-1/2 cups ground almonds
• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• ½ cup toasted almonds finely chopped*
• ¼ teaspoon salt
• 1 cup unsalted butter softened
• ¼ teaspoon pure almond extract
• ¼ teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 2 cups confectioner sugar icing

Instructions

 

• Position a rack in the center of the oven and heat the oven to 350°F.
• Line two baking sheets with parchment paper and set aside.
• In a medium bowl, combine the ground almonds, flour, finely chopped almonds and salt. Set aside.
• In the bowl of your stand mixer, fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the butter and 1/2 cup of the icing sugar until well blended and fluffy.
• With the mixer on low speed, add the ground almond mixture, almond and vanilla extracts. Mix until well combined, scraping the sides of the bowl a couple of times.
• Using a cookie scoop, scoop out balls of dough. Shape each cookie by rolling the dough between your hands. Arrange cookies 1 inch apart onto lined baking sheets.
• Bake cookies, one sheet at a time, for about 14-16 minutes or until bottoms are golden and tops are slightly coloured and firm to the touch.
• Let the cookies cool on the sheet for about 5 minutes and then roll each one into the sifted icing sugar.
• Let the cookies cool completely and roll them in the icing sugar a second time.

Notes

1. To toast almonds, preheat oven to 325°F. Spread almonds on a cookie sheet in a single layer. Make sure to stir every few minutes. Almonds are toasted when they are fragrant and lightly browned, it should take between 8 to 10 minutes.

Nutrition

Calories: 88kcalCarbohydrates: 8gProtein: 1gFat: 6gSaturated Fat: 3gCholesterol: 10mgSodium: 12mgPotassium: 14mgFiber: 1gSugar: 5gVitamin A: 113IUCalcium: 12mgIron: 1mg

Keyword Almond Snowball Cookies, Powdered Sugar Almond Cookies, Powdered Sugar Cookies

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