from my kitchen: peppermint snowballs

Wednesday, December 9, 2009

peppermint snowballs

These are a variation of a cookie that is very popular this time of year!! Russian Tea cakes, Mexican Wedding cookie, Snowball, Any others?? basically its a shortbread type cookie rolled in powdered sugar before and after baking. My Friend Diana was sweet enough to give me this recipe to use today!!! Thank you Diana(We've known each other since Kindergarden!!!!!)

Peppermint Snowballs
-1 Cup Butter
-1/2 Cup Powder Sugar
-1 tsp vanilla
-2 1/2 Cup Flour
-1/2 Cup Nuts
Filling
-2 TB cream cheese
-1/2 Cup powdered sugar
-1 tsp milk
-3 TB Crushed Peppermints
-1 drop red food coloring
Topping
-1/2 Cup crushed peppermints
-1/2 Cup powdered sugar

Cream together the butter and powdered sugar. Add the vanilla and mix well. Gradually add the flour and ground nuts (if using) and mix well. Knead the dough and then cover and refrigerate for 1 hour. I rolled it into the shape of a log, wrapped with saran wrap and chilled.

While the dough is chilling, prepare the filling by beating together the cream cheese, powdered sugar, milk, crushed candy and food coloring, I use Wilton color gels, they are more concentrated than plain food coloring and about $1.50 at wal-mart. I turned it into a pretty pink color!! You could add more if you wanted a more red color.

I flattened the dough out in my palm,

put a little filling in the middle then rolled it into a ball,

I ended up sometimes with little holes so I tried to patch them up with a little extra dough..seemed to work!! then roll them in the topping and place on you cookie sheet. bake at 350 for about 14 minutes, then let them sit for about a minute, then roll into topping again!!!

I thought that these were pretty good, they were a nice light cookie a good break from the heavy chocolatey things that surround us during Christmas time!!! If I were to do them again I would add a little peppermint extract to make them a little more flavorful...look how cute these cookies are when you bite into them!!! Not so great picture I know, but you get the idea!!!