These Keto Snowball Cookies are sure to make your holidays merry and bright! With crushed walnuts and a hint of cardamom or cinnamon, they are the perfect sugar-free holiday cookies for you and all of your loved ones.
This recipe for Keto Snowball Cookies was originally posted in 2013. Seven years ago! It was time to give this classic recipe a much needed update. Now they are even more tender and sweet, with fewer carbs and with a new how-to recipe video. You won’t believe how easy they are to make.
I got a very early jump on my Christmas baking this year. I seem to start a little earlier every year, because keto Christmas cookies are one of my favorite things in the world to bake.
I used to make myself wait until after Thanksgiving, lest I get sick of all Christmas baking before the big day rolls around. It’s my favorite holiday by far, and I never want to risk being bored by it all before Santa and his reindeer have a chance to fire up the sleigh and take off from the North Pole. Now that would be a real tragedy.
But on the other hand, why deny myself the pleasure of such an enjoyable pastime? Cookies like these keto snowballs do so well in the freezer, and then I have a wonderful assortment to give away to friends and family.
Keto Snowball Cookies or Russian Tea Cakes?
Or… Mexican wedding cakes? What do you call these tasty ball-shaped cookies rolled in powdered sweetener? I do love the name snowballs, since that’s exactly what they look like when they’re finished.
I received so many requests for Keto Snowball Cookies, being a standard holiday favourite for many families. Some people call them Russian Tea Cakes, others know them as Mexican Wedding Cakes.
Whatever you call them, they amount to the same thing…a tender, shortbread-like cookie in a round ball, sprinkled with copious amounts of powdered sugar.
Since I managed to nail a low carb version of my father’s favorite cookie, the Keto Pecan Crescent Cookies, I knew that making low carb snowballs would be a cinch. And I added some chopped walnuts and some cardamom for a burst of flavor.
Updated Low Carb Snowballs Recipe
I know that this is a much loved recipe and some of you are probably fearful hearing that I changed things up a bit. Never fear, my sweet keto friends! The recipe is much the same, with a few minor changes.
For one thing I reduced the almond flour a touch to make them more tender and melt-in-your-mouth. I also ditched the stevia extract, as many people prefer not to use it and my son appears to have a mild reaction to it.
When I first made these keto snowball cookies 7 years ago, I had a little difficulty getting them to roll properly in the powdered sweetener. It simply didn’t stick to the cookies as much as I had hoped. But somewhere over the years, Swerve changed their formula a bit and it’s much more like real powdered sugar.
So now they look and taste just like the snowball cookies your mum/grandma/cousin/aunt used to make!
How to make keto snowball cookies
These might just be some of the easiest keto Christmas cookies you will ever make. Here are my tips for the most tender, tastiest keto snowball cookies:
- Use a good fine almond flour like Bob’s Red Mill. That’s my top choice but some others like Wellbee and Honeyville are good too. I recently had a disappointing experience with the 365 brand from Whole Foods, as my dough for some other cookies came out very grainy.
- The walnuts should be quite finely chopped for a more cohesive dough. I recommend pulsing them in a food processor until they resemble coarse crumbs with a few bigger bits and pieces. You could also do pecans if you prefer.
- Don’t leave out the coconut flour, as it helps give these snowballs a good consistency so that they don’t lose their ball shape during baking.
- Not a fan of cardamom? Try some ground cinnamon instead. Use only 1/2 teaspoon as cinnamon is stronger than cardamom.
- Make sure that butter is well softened! You need to cream it well with the sweetener and you can’t do that with hard butter.
- Roll the dough as round as you can between your palms. The cookies will rise a tiny bit during baking so any lumps or bumps will even out.
- Let them cool completely and then roll them in powdered sweetener such as Swerve Confectioners. You can use other sweeteners but I am not sure how well those will coat and stick.
Can you make Keto Snowball Cookies ahead?
You sure can and in fact, I have some in my freezer at this very moment. You can roll them in sweetener first and then freeze or wait to roll them after they thaw.
As with all keto cookie recipes, you want to store them carefully in an airtight container. These are pretty sturdy cookies, though, so once frozen, they won’t crumble or break apart. And they can last up to two months.
To thaw, take them out of the container and spread them out so that they don’t touch each other. This helps keep the cookies from getting soggy.
More delicious keto walnut recipes
- Keto Maple Walnut Biscotti
- Keto Cinnamon Walnut Coffee Cake
- Keto Chocolate Walnut Torte
- Keto Maple Walnut Ice Cream
- Keto Walnut Fudge
- Keto Walnut Pie Crust
Keto Snowball Cookies
Ingredients
- 1 3/4 cups (180 g) almond flour
- 1 cup (117 g) walnut pieces, finely chopped (almost ground)
- 2 tbsp coconut flour
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 3/4 - 1 tsp ground cardamom, (or 1/2 tsp cinnamon)
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1/2 cup (113.5 g) butter, softened
- 1/2 cup (91 g) erythritol sweetener, (granular or powdered)
- 1 large egg, room temperature
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1/2 cup (91 g) powdered Swerve Sweetener
Instructions
- For the cookies, preheat oven to 325F and line 2 baking sheets with silicone liners or parchment paper.
- In a medium bowl, whisk together the almond flour, chopped walnuts, coconut flour, cardamom, baking powder and salt.
- In a large bowl, beat the butter with the sweetener until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Beat in the egg, and vanilla extract. Beat in the almond flour mixture until the dough comes together.
- Roll the dough into 1 inch balls and place on baking sheets about 1 inch apart. Bake 16 to 18 minutes, or until just lightly golden brown. Remove and let cool on the pan.
- Place the powdered sweetener in a small shallow bowl. Roll each cookie until completely coated in the powdered sweetener.
Nutrition
Nutritional Disclaimer
Please note that I am not a medical or nutritional professional. I am simply recounting and sharing my own experiences on this blog. Nothing I express here should be taken as medical advice and you should consult with your doctor before starting any diet or exercise program. I provide nutritional information for my recipes simply as a courtesy to my readers. It is calculated using MacGourmet software and I remove erythritol from the final carb count and net carb count, as it does not affect my own blood glucose levels. I do my best to be as accurate as possible but you should independently calculate nutritional information on your own before relying on them. I expressly disclaim any and all liability of any kind with respect to any act or omission wholly or in part in reliance on anything contained in this website.
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These look SOOOO good Carolyn! I think I need to add them to my baking list!
This recipe makes me so excited! My family made Mexican wedding cookies (which we call Poof Balls since they just go poor in your mouth ????) in huge amounts every Christmas during my childhood. I haven’t had them in years because we discovered my gluten allergy. I will have to try these as written and try using my grandmother’s recipe/spices too. Looks like I’ll have lots of pans of poof balls in my kitchen this Christmas season! Thanks Carolyn, for bringing back an old family tradition!
Hi Carolyn!
Your website is my go to whenever I want to make anything sweet. Your recipes always hit the spot.
For this recipe, can I leave out the stevia extract? Or substitute it with something else?
Yes, feel free to sub in more Swerve. It’s an older recipe, I don’t really use stevia anymore as my son seems to have developed a bit of an allergy.
One of my favorite cookie recipes . Love it .
I’ve never had conventionally-made snowballs, but my husband says these are almost exactly like them. All I can confirm is that they are delicious. I was almost out of confectioner’s Swerve, so I ground Truvia and MonkSweet until powdered, and then added my remaining 2 T Swerve and a small amount of tapioca starch to mimic the corn starch in powdered sugar. I began rolling the warm cookies in my powdered sweetener and was pleased with the snowy coating each received, until a few minutes passed and it turned wet and pasty from the residual warmth of the cookie. Does this happen to your cookies, Carolyn, or do you think it’s a result of the sweeteners/starch I used? I stopped coating the warm cookies when I noticed what was happening, and wiped the paste off of each one as well as I could. I’m waiting for the rest of the batch to cool completely, and for the pasty cookies to dry, before I do more rolling. I do expect the sweetener to cling nicely to the cooled cookies! Not sure what happened. It’s probably due to my adjustments. Perhaps others who decide to make their own powdered coatings can learn from my experience: experiment to find what coating method produces the best snow on your snowballs.
It does tend to disappear into the cookie but mine doesn’t become pasty so I think that’s the tapioca starch.
You’re probably right. I have a slight obsession with adding small amounts of tapioca starch to recipes. Almond flour, xanthan gum, and other low-carb ingredients are pretty great on their own, but when I add a small amount of tapioca starch to the mix and things turn out so close to conventional recipes, I feel like I can conquer the world. ? Maybe not necessary here though. Nevertheless, I rolled the cookies in my sweetener mix before serving, and they were plenty sweet with a light, dry coating. Very tasty! For our family Christmas party I made your spritz cookies, gingerbread spritz, snowballs, two variations of your chocolate peppermint stars (orange and hazelnut) and lemon thumbprints using your lemon curd and Twix thumbprint dough recipes. Everything turned out great. Thanks so much!
Getting ready to make these again. Skipping Splenda (Sucralose) since discovering this past year it causes migraines. But I still don’t have access to any fancy ingredients like Erythritol or liquid Stevia. I have the green bag of Raw Stevia and hope this will work in the dough and for powdering. I haven’t tried powdering granulated Stevia yet. Wish me luck!
This time though in addition to making them low-carb, I have to satisfy someone who is dairy-free which means substituting with Vegan margarine (Earth Balance) and and liquid eggs. Hope these don’t compromise the recipe.
I’m still unsure what made them so darn dry and dense last year.
Good luck!
Do you know if it would be possible to substitute THM flour blend? These sound amazing btw!
It’s much drier so I am not sure it would work
Snowballs are my favorite cookies!
These are a wonderful alternative to our sugar laden snowballs but I would suggest two adjustments 1) I would try half the amount of cardamom next time because it is such a strong flavor and not one my family is accustomed to. In one batch, I used almond extract instead and the flavor was superb! 2) I have not enjoyed any of the sweetener substitutes at all, either the erythritol is too minty or the stevia is too bitter or the Splenda is too gummy and artificial in its aftertaste, but I just found an amazing low glycemic sweetener called “Whey-Low” and goodness if it doesn’t taste EXACTLY like the real thing. I would suggest trying a batch with this sweetener. I kind of just Googled and Googled and found it and was able to order it online. Now there is no bitterness or aftertaste or cooling effect, I am totally thrilled. Thanks for such an awesome recipe!! This is one I will be baking to deliver to all of my clients! -Meg Russell
what is stevia extract? can I use sweet leaf stevia drops? thanks for the great holiday recipes!
That’s what stevia extract is.
Just made a batch of these and they are super dry on the palate. Not dense nor tough, but just very dry like needing to take a sip of a beverage with every bite.
I followed everything exactly and noticed the dough never “came together”, but I still formed 3/4″ balls with my hands
Good flavor but dry.
Well then something went wrong because they should not be and they dough should most definitely come together. May I ask what brand of sweetener and/or almond flour you used?
Store Brand sucralose and Bob’s Mill almond flour. I pressed them slightly with a “+” design. They held together well. I added a dollop of sugar-free vanilla frosting on top and decorated with a walnut.
They’re attractive and another taster says they taste really good. They’re deceptively small but last 3-4 bites in the mouth, but there must be water nearby for sipping.
Bob’s flour is fine as long as it’s the Super Fine (they used to make a coarser grind but there isn’t much of that left in stores anymore). But the sweetener may be the issue here. I don’t use sucralose at all but I do know it can dry things out a lot.
Not at all familiar with cardamom and happy to try this pairing with walnut, but would any variation work such as nutmeg and pistachio?
And I know these are snowBALLS, but can I press them down on the cookie sheet in either a thumbprint or pinwheel shape, just to fancy them up?
I’m looking for something to take to a Christmas party and want a shape fancier than balls.
These are totally adaptable so any of your ideas should work. If you flatten them, they may cook faster.
These are crazy delicious. The texture is on point……can’t stop eating them 🙂
Could anyone help me out here? I really wanna try these but I cannot stand even the smallest bit of coconut ANYTHING in my food. It makes me sick.. im wondering if maybe I could use a little cream of tarter? or some baking soda? :\
Sub another 1/3 cup almond flour instead.
These just came out of the oven. Tasted the dough before going in and I decided to just give them a sprinkle of powdered Swerve instead of rolling them in it. Just the right sweetness for us. Seems the longer we are eating LCHF the less sweet we like things! Thanks again for all that you do in helping me stay on my WOE….your recipes are terrific.
So glad you liked them!
Commenting again because I forgot to click the follow up comments box. Thanks!
I bought ground cardamom from Penzey’s.