Tis the Season

It's that time of the year. The music is playing, lights are going up on houses, trees are being decorated, and the kitchen smells like delicious baked goods. Yes, it's Christmas. This should come as no surprise, but my favorite part of the holiday are the baked goods. There are so many festive treats to make and plenty of reason to package them up and share with loved ones. This weekend, I have a holiday party to go to, giving me a reason to bake some treats. Today, I tried out a recipe for walnut snowball cookies. They remind me a lot of my favorite cookies at King's Hawaiian Bakery in Torrance, CA--except theirs have macadamia nuts which is much more fitting. I found this recipe in a Food & Wine magazine and it looked so simple. A traditional shortbread recipe with walnuts, baked and rolled in powdered sugar. The results were amazing. Light, buttery cookies that have just the perfect amount of sweet with some crunch from the nuts. As the recipe suggests, you can easily change this recipe to add a different type of nut, some cardamom, or any other flavors. It's a great basic cookie. And how much more festive can you get than eating a snowball?

Walnut Snowball Cookies
from Food & Wine Magazine

• 1 1/2 cups walnuts (6 ounces)
• 2 sticks unsalted butter, at room temperature
• 1/2 vanilla bean, split and seeds scraped (OR 1 tsp vanilla extract)
• 2 cups confectioners’ sugar
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 2 cups all-purpose flour

1. Preheat the oven to 350°. Line 2 large cookie sheets with parchment paper. Spread the walnuts on a rimmed baking sheet and bake for about 8 minutes, until golden brown. Let cool, then coarsely chop. Reduce the oven temperature to 325°.
2. In a standing mixer fitted with the paddle, beat the butter with the vanilla bean seeds at high speed until pale, about 2 minutes. Add 1 cup of the confectioners’ sugar and beat at medium-high speed until light and fluffy, about 5 minutes, scraping down the side of the bowl with a rubber spatula halfway through. At low speed, mix in the salt, then gradually add the flour and walnuts and beat just until the cookie dough comes together, scraping down the side of the bowl halfway through.
3. Roll level tablespoons of the dough into balls and arrange them on the prepared cookie sheets. Bake the cookies in the upper and lower thirds of the oven for about 17 minutes, until they are lightly browned on the bottom; switch the sheets from top to bottom and front to back halfway through baking. Let the cookies firm up on the sheets, about 5 minutes, then transfer them to a rack to cool slightly.
4. Put the remaining 1 cup of confectioners’ sugar in a small bowl. Roll the warm cookies in the sugar to coat and return to the rack to cool completely. Roll again in the sugar.

MAKE AHEAD The cookies can be stored in an airtight container for up to 5 days.