Easy 5-Ingredient Almond Flour Snowball Cookies

Almond flour snowball cookies are soft, tender, and a more nourishing alternative to traditional snowball cookies that are made with white flour. They melt in your mouth, are perfectly sweetened, and have a delicious nutty flavor thanks to both the almond flour and chopped pecans. The best part? They’re ready from start to finish in 30 minutes!

Easy 5-Ingredient Almond Flour Snowball Cookies

Also known as Mexican wedding cookies and Russian tea cakes, these little snowballs are melt-in-your-mouth good.

They are the perfect Christmas cookie to have around the holidays and add to a cookie platter to share, or a cookie jar to keep on hand at home to enjoy.

The dough mixes easily in one bowl, and if you’re making these with kids, they’ll love rolling the cookie dough balls in “snow” aka powdered sugar to give the cookies their unique white powdery look.

I’m a big fan of swapping nutrient-dense almond flour in place of all-purpose flour. You get more healthy fats, protein and fiber, plus it is naturally gluten free

If you’re looking for a flour that is more blood sugar balancing, you’ll love using almond flour in baked goods! Each of these cookies has just 4 net carbohydrates, making it a lower carb cookie option.

Why you’ll love this recipe

Made with minimal ingredients – Made with 5 simple ingredients, these cookies come together quickly. You’ll love that they mix in one bowl and require zero chilling!

Buttery soft – The combination of butter and almond flour leaves you with the softest buttery cookies. They have the best mouth texture and melt in your mouth. 

Classic Christmas cookie—This shortbread-like cookie is one of my favorite Christmas cookies! If I’m making a cookie box to share, these are a must-have addition during the holiday season!

Wholesome ingredients you’ll need for almond snowball cookies

Scroll down to view the recipe card below for the full ingredients list, nutritional information, and step-by-step instructions.

• almond flour
• unsalted butter
• powdered sugar
• vanilla extract
• sea salt
• pecans

How to make healthy snowball cookies

Step 1: Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F and line a cookie sheet with parchment paper.

Step 2: In a medium bowl, mix the almond flour, soft butter, powdered sugar, vanilla, and salt together until fully combined. Stir in the chopped pecans. You could do this in an electric mixer, but a bowl and spoon work just as well!

Step 3: Scoop 1.5 tbsp worth of cookie dough and roll into 1-inch balls. Place on the prepared baking sheet. Bake the cookies for 20-22 minutes, until the bottoms are lightly golden brown. Let the cookies cool to the touch.

Step 4: Add a little powdered sugar into a small bowl and then roll each cooled cookie in powdered sugar. ENJOY!

NOTE: To get finely chopped pecans, you can pulse them in a food process a few times. Just don’t process them for too long or you’ll end up with pecan butter!

Watch me make this delicious cookie recipe!

The full how to video can be watched below, or on my YouTube channel!

How to turn these into keto snowball cookies

To make these cookies into keto cookies without any added sugar, there is one simple swap to make, and it won’t affect how the cookies turn out, other than having less sugar and carbohydrates.

You’ll want to swap the powdered sugar for monk fruit sweetened powdered sugar.

This sugar alternative will not add any sugars or carbohydrates to your cookies. All of the remaining ingredients are naturally low carb and keto making this a great cookie recipe to turn keto!

The original recipe leaves you with 4 net grams of carbohydrates, but if you’d like the carbs lower, use the monk fruit sweetener option.

How to store

Once the cookies are baked and fully cooled to room temperature you can add them to an airtight container. They will store well for up to 1 week on the counter at room temperature.

You can also store them chilled in the fridge but they will harden slightly with the high butter content.

If you make a big batch and have lots of extra cookies, they freeze really well too! Simply add cookies to a freezer bag, label and date the bag, then keep frozen for up to 6 months.

Defrost cookies at room temperature until the chill is gone and enjoy!

Substitutions, optional variations & dietary adjustments

Below you’ll find a list of substitutions that will work well in this pecan snowball cookies recipe. 

If you try something different out, please leave a comment below letting us all know how it turned out!

Almond flour – While you could just use almond meal (which is ground almonds with the skin on), the texture would not be quite as soft and tender. I suggest using cashew flour, pecan flour, or walnut flour in place of almond flour. Traditional snowball cookies use white flour, so that is an option as well as whole wheat flour.

Unsalted butter – A good alternative is coconut oil. Instead of a buttery flavor, you’ll have a nice coconut flavor added to these cookies. The recipe works great with a combination of both butter and coconut oil together too!

Powdered sugar – Did you know you can make your own powdered confectioners’ sugar with white sugar and a blender? Add the sugar (or coconut sugar for a darker color) to a blender or food processor and blend until you have a fine powdery sugar. You can do this process with granulated monk fruit sugar to make a zero-sugar powdered sugar alternative to use for keto cookies.

Vanilla extract – Almond extract is a good alternative to vanilla extract.

Pecans – Any type of nut will work in place of pecans. Walnuts, almonds, and macadamia nuts would be delicious alternatives. Just be sure to chop the nuts finely.

More healthy cookie recipes you’ll love

• Chocolate chip pistachio almond flour cookies with dates
• Almond flour oatmeal raisin cookies
• Peanut butter powder protein cookies
• PB & J thumbprint cookies

If you try this healthy snowball cookie recipe, I’d love it if you left a star rating and comment below letting me know how it turned out!

XO

Heather