Description
Christmas Mice Snowball Cookies are buttery, crisp, nutty treats shaped like fluffy white mice, perfect for the holiday season. These nostalgic cookies feature a tender texture coated in powdered sugar and decorated with almond ears and cherry licorice tails, making them festive and irresistibly charming.
Ingredients
Scale
Nut Mixture
- 1 cup pecans
Cookie Dough
- 1 cup unsalted butter (softened)
- ½ cup powdered sugar
- 1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract
- ½ teaspoon sea salt
- 2 ¼ cups all purpose flour (270g)
- ¼ cup almond slices
Decoration
- 1 cup powdered sugar (for dusting)
- 30 pieces candy ropes (cherry licorice)
Instructions
- Toast Pecans: Preheat the oven to 355°F (180°C). Spread the pecans on a parchment-lined baking sheet and bake for 8 minutes until fragrant and toasty. Watch carefully to prevent burning. Remove from oven and let cool before chopping or crushing into small pieces.
- Prepare Butter Mixture: In a large bowl or using a stand mixer with a paddle attachment, beat the softened butter, ½ cup powdered sugar, vanilla extract, and sea salt together until creamy, scraping the bowl as needed.
- Combine Dough Ingredients: Add the flour and cooled crushed pecans to the butter mixture. Mix on low speed until a dough forms.
- Shape Cookies: Using a cookie scoop, portion out 1 ½ tablespoons of dough. Roll each portion into a ball, then pinch one side slightly to form a mouse nose shape. Press almond slices into the dough balls to create ears.
- Bake the Cookies: Place shaped cookies on a parchment-lined baking sheet with about 1 inch space between each. Bake for 15 minutes or until cookies are golden.
- Dust & Decorate: Immediately after removing the cookies from the oven, dust them carefully with powdered sugar. Use a toothpick to make a hole for the tail and insert a piece of candy rope while the cookies are still warm so the tails stick well.
- Cool Completely: Allow the cookies to cool completely on the baking sheet. They will continue to crisp up as they cool before serving.
Notes
- Be careful not to burn the pecans; nuts roast quickly and you want them toasted, not charred.
- Softened butter is key to achieving the right cookie texture and easy mixing.
- Shaping the dough balls with a pinch for the nose and adding almond slices for ears creates the whimsical mouse look.
- Inserting candy rope tails while cookies are hot helps them adhere better.
- Cookies continue to crisp as they cool, so avoid eating them immediately for best texture.
- Powdered sugar coating gives a classic snowball cookie appearance and melts in your mouth.
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1 cookie
- Calories: 140 kcal
- Sugar: 6 g
- Sodium: 40 mg
- Fat: 9 g
- Saturated Fat: 4 g
- Unsaturated Fat: 4 g
- Trans Fat: 0.2 g
- Carbohydrates: 14 g
- Fiber: 1 g
- Protein: 1 g
- Cholesterol: 16 mg
