Easy Vegan Snowball Cookies

These nutty, buttery, meltaway cookies are delicious little shortbread balls double-rolled in powdered sugar. You can call them Mexican wedding cookies, Russian tea cakes, or classic Christmas cookies, but these vegan snowball cookies are heavenly. 

If you want more vegan cookie recipes, try our jam-filled thumbprint cookies, blueberry-lemon cookies, coconut cookies, walnut crescent cookies, or the best shortbread cookies.

What do these cookies taste like?

These shortbread-like, crunchy, nutty, buttery cookies are famous in many countries, though they may have different shapes (balls or crescent moon) or are flavored with different nuts (pecans, walnuts, hazelnuts, or almonds). 

I read an interesting article that Mexican wedding cookies and Russian tea cakes are the same. Until the early 1950s, cookbooks used the name Russian tea cakes, while after the 1950s, cookbooks started using Mexican wedding cookies for the same recipe. 

It is also a famous European Christmas cookie recipe, although they use walnuts and are crescent-shaped like Austrian vanillekipferl, Hungarian hókifli, or Polish rogaliki.

In this recipe, we will show you how to form perfect snowballs just like in the below picture. And in our vegan crescent cookies recipe, we will show you how to shape the dough as a crescent moon.

Ingredients

Our melt-in-the-mouth snowball cookie recipe calls for only a handful of ingredients:

• Walnut meal → You can use pecans, almonds, or other nuts like pistachios or hazelnuts to create a new flavor. We recommend using the coarse nut meal and not the fine nut flour.
• White rice flour
• Cornstarch → You can substitute it with tapioca or other starches
• Cane sugar → You can use other dry sugars like coconut sugar, brown sugar, or white sugar. We haven’t tested this recipe with a liquid sweetener like maple syrup.
• Vegan butter
• Vanilla extract
• Pinch of salt
• Powdered sugar (also known as icing sugar)

🛒 You can find detailed measurements for all ingredients in the printable version of the recipe card at the bottom of this post.

Instructions

You can make vegan snowball cookie dough by hand in 3 minutes, or with a food processor in 2 minutes. No need for a stand mixer or other special appliance.

1. Add all ingredients (ground walnuts, rice flour, starch, sugar, butter, salt, and vanilla extract) to a food processor.
2. Pulse until you get crumbs.
3. Take a large bowl and add the dough. Knead it with your hands for 2-3 minutes until it forms a dough.
4. Depending on the butter you use or the exact measurements, if you still feel that the dough is too dry, add 1-3 teaspoons of water. One teaspoon at a time.

5. Grab a tablespoon or a small cookie scoop, scoop some cookie dough and create a ball with your hands. See the below photo for reference.
6. Bake them on parchment paper for 10-12 minutes. Baking time may depend on your oven, so check them around 8-10 minutes.
7. Dust them with powdered sugar using a sifter while they are hot and still on the parchment paper.
8. Roll them again in powdered sugar after they are cool to the touch to create a lovely snowball-like effect.

Top tips

• Measure it with a scale – Baking is about precision. It is a question of science how different ingredients react to each other under heat. I measure ingredients first on a scale and convert the recipe back to cups. I use King Arthur’s Weight Chart to ensure the cup measurements align with the grams. If you want to make perfect cookies every time, your measurements should be precise.
• Use parchment paper – I recommend using parchment paper instead of a silicone baking sheet or any type of cookie sheet, especially if you bake multiple batches. You can take the parchment paper from the baking tray and place it on a cooling rack. Then you can bake the next round without any waiting time. If you use a silicone baking sheet or cookie sheet, you need to wait because these snowball cookies will likely deform if you try to move them while they are hot.
• Place them close – As there is no baking powder, baking soda, or any other type of leavening, they will not rise significantly. You can place them relatively close to each other.
• When are they ready? – If they start to brown on the edges, you are too late. Cookies with rice flour usually remain light-colored. 
• Why do you need double dusting? – When you dust them with powdered sugar right out of the oven, the heat will melt it a bit, creating the perfect surface for the next round of powdered sugar to stick to the snowballs. If you only do one round, they will not likely be as snowy as in the photo below.  

FAQs and substitutions

How long will the cookies last?

They hold up for relatively long, even at room temperature. We left them out for 3-4 days, and the texture hasn’t changed much. That is why they can be perfect as edible Christmas gifts as well. You can store them longer, approximately two weeks, if you use an airtight container. I never kept them longer, so let me know if you do.

Can you freeze the cookie dough?

Before forming the snowball cookies, take the dough out of the freezer and let it thaw in the fridge overnight or at room temperature for at least 1 hour.

Can you substitute any flour or starch?

I have only tested these vegan snowball cookies with cornstarch and tapioca starch and saw no difference. Read our tapioca flour substitutes article for more starch options. As for the flour, you can use other gluten-free flour like oat flour instead of white rice flour. I haven’t tested it with any all-purpose flour.

Allergen info

This Vegan Snowball Cookies recipe is dairy-free and egg-free.

• Vegan – All suggested ingredients are supposed to be vegan.
• Nut-free – Nut meal is an essential ingredient, and I haven’t tested this recipe with seeds. Let me know if you do.
• WFPB-friendly (whole foods plant-based) – Vegan butter is not compliant since it has processed oil. We haven’t tested this recipe with nut butter.
• Gluten-free – All proposed ingredients are supposed to be gluten-free, but always check the packaging for cross-contamination info, especially for cornstarch and flour.
• Soy-free – Companies frequently use soy to make vegan butter. So select soy-free products. All other ingredients are supposed to be soy-free.

More vegan cookie recipes

For more vegan dessert recipes, browse through our recipe collection or check out these delicious cookies:

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UPDATED: This recipe was originally posted in October 2021. More info, tips, and details were added, and it was republished in October 2022.