Vegan snowball cookies are light, delicious, buttery, and so festive! These wonderful holiday cookies melt in your mouth. You will love these easy to make treats!
We all have our favorite holiday cookie recipes, don’t we? The ones that we make year after year.
In our family, we always have to make sugar cookies, gluten free chocolate crinkles, and checkerboard cookies. These are the classic recipes that we look forward to each Christmas.
Another recipe that we all absolutely love is this recipe for snowball cookies. We love, love, LOVE these cookies so much.
These are so buttery and light, like a shortbread cookie. The powdered sugar on the outside is a sweet contrast to the rich cookie. And the bright white coating is so festive, like winter snowballs.
This is a great cookie recipe to try if you’re short on time and need a quick, successful, allergy friendly holiday dessert.
You may also know these as Mexican wedding cookies, and they can be made with with chopped nuts, but of course that doesn’t work if you have nut allergies. Many people add mini chocolate chips instead – and that’s the way we like these cookies. These snowball cookies without nuts are still light, sweet, and so fun for the holidays.
Which flour to use
I’ve made these vegan snowball cookies a couple of different ways in the past few years. I’ve made them with a gluten free flour blend, and I’ve made them with white spelt flour. This recipe does work well both ways!
It would also work just fine with regular all-purpose flour, too. I did notice with the spelt flour, they spread out just a little tiny bit. Not flat, but not totally round.
I prefer using my gluten free flour blend for this recipe. It does not contain any xanthan gum, and that keeps these cookies nice and light. If you choose a store bought gluten free blend, I recommend finding one without any gums for the best texture.
How to make these cookies
- Beat the vegan buttery spread, sugar, vanilla, and applesauce until light and fluffy.
- Add the flour and salt.
- Mix until combined.
- Stir in the chocolate chips.
- Roll the dough into balls and place on a cookie sheet. Bake at 325 degrees for about 18 minutes.
- Allow to cool, then roll in powdered sugar.
Watch the video below to see how easy it is to make these cookies.
Variations
- You can leave out the chocolate chips – this would make them more like shortbread.
- You can add chopped nuts if you are able to eat nuts.
- You could add finely ground pumpkin seeds to the batter in place of nuts if you want a little crunch.
More vegan holiday dessert recipes
Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links.
Recipe
Vegan Snowball Cookies.
Ingredients
- ¾ cup vegan buttery spread
- 2 teaspoons vanilla
- 2 Tablespoons unsweetened applesauce
- 4 Tablespoons organic cane sugar
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- 2 cups gluten free flour If you aren't gluten free, you can use all-purpose flour or white spelt flour
- ½ cup dairy free mini chocolate chips
- 1 cup powdered sugar
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F. Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper. Put the cup of powdered sugar in a small bowl and set aside.
- Place the vegan buttery spread, vanilla extract, applesauce, salt, and cane sugar in a mixing bowl. Beat on high speed until light and fluffy.
- Stop the mixer, and add the gluten free flour a cup at a time, mixing until it is all incorporated. The dough will be very thick.
- Turn the mixer off and stir in the mini chocolate chips.
- Roll the dough into one inch balls and place them on the cookie sheet, with about an inch and a half in between them. I could fit 12 cookies on a cookie sheet.
- Bake at 325 degrees F for 18-21 minutes, until the balls are golden brown on the bottom.
- Remove from oven and let cool for about 15 minutes before rolling in the powdered sugar.
- While the cookies are warm, roll them in the powdered sugar. Let the cookies cool fully, then roll in the powdered sugar again to get a nice white coating.
- Repeat steps 5-8 with remaining dough.
- Store cookies in an airtight container. They should stay fresh for about 5 days.
Notes
Nutrition
Adapted from here.
These really are one of my very favorite Christmas cookies! What are your favorite cookies to bake?
cyndi
Can these be freezed?
Kelly Roenicke
Yes, you can freeze these!
Martina
I was invited to a last minute lunch gathering with some friends, several of whom do not eat gluten. I am vegan, so experienced with vegan baking, but not so much with gluten free baking. I needed a quick and delicious dessert recipe that I could make from ingredients I had at home (ie nothing terribly unusual). I figured I would give these snowball cookies a try. I am so glad I did!!
So easy! One bowl, had all the ingredients on hand, incredibly quick to mix up, and the end result was fantastic. The cookies packed a powerful hit of yum not just in my opinion, but also in the opinions of several other people who “can’t stand how gluten free things…” taste, have a weird texture, etc.. The cookies were a little more crumbly than their glutinous counterparts, but that made them seem delicate and extra good rather than unappealing.
And as a special bonus, the yield on the cookies was exactly 24. That is always a high point for me, because sometimes, I just don’t know what the recipe creator was thinking with their size measurements. I measure carefully and have ended up way off on the yield more than one. So I was quite pleased with the exactly two dozen cookies I took t the lunch.
I didn’t have enough time to let the cookies cool as much as they should have before rolling in powdered sugar. The sugar soaked into some of the cookies, which was fine. I also left some of the cookies blank, in case the melted in sugar didn’t work out. Both versions of the cookie were delicious. I personally preferred the ones without the sugar on them, but I tend to prefer slightly less sweet cookies.
I have always thought it important to include everyone need with food I bring to social gatherings, if at all possible. The importance of this has been underlined for me since becoming a vegan, going to parties, and having no food, or very low effort foods (think bag of chips) because people couldn’t figure out how to do anything vegan. Thanks for the great recipe that allowed me to take cookies for everyone. I know where I will be coming back to next time I am looking for something to share with my gluten free friends (or maybe even if I am just looking for something a little different to try!).
Kelly Roenicke
Wonderful! I am so happy to hear that these were a hit! Thank you for letting me know. :)
Jacquie
Perfect paired with hot cocoa on a snowy day!
Dee
These look perfect for tea time!
Lauren
Could you use a non vegan butter (if you’re not vegan?) And would coconutbsugar work?
Laura
Is there any chance you can email me this recipe and a few others. I can’t get them to print to be able to bring them to the kitchen to try them….Because I am sure you aren’t busy :) Thanks so much!!
Madison
If I didn’t want to use the chocolate chips could I add more sweetness to the cookies by using sweetened applesauce?
Kelly Roenicke
I don’t think you need to add anything else, they will be good without the chocolate chips. Too much applesauce will effect the texture.
Gina olson
I don’t see the recipe for the buttery spread. In the vegan snowball cookies. Is it just vegan butter
Giovanna
Hello, I would love to make your snowball cookies but would like to substitute light olive oil instead of a vegan spread. Do you think it would work? I miss these cookies since I have been diary intolerant.
Kelly Roenicke
I don’t know if it would work, because I have never tried that. Since coconut oil is a solid when chilled, I think I would try that before I would try olive oil. Let me know what you try!
Meg H
If I were to leave out the chocolate chips, would it make a huge difference, do you think? I cannot have chocolate but these look so good!
Kelly
Can you have nuts? I think these need a little something extra in there, because they are not too sweet. Or carob chips?
Meg
I cannot have nuts. I did make these without the chocolate and they were delicious!
Kelly
Awesome, so glad to hear it!
Claire
Question- I want to make these vegan, but not gluten free. Can I swap gluten free flour for regular flour with the same result?
Kelly
Yes you can! When I tried them that way, they did not stay quite as round, but they still tasted great!
Zia
Confectioner’s sugar is not considered “vegan”, is it? I think animal bones are used in the processing.
Kelly
There are some brands that are vegan, this article lists some specific brands. https://www.vrg.org/journal/vj2007issue4/2007_issue4_sugar.php
Denise Nassetta
I have made confectioners sugar by grinding regular sugar in a blender.
Kelly Roenicke
Good idea!
Sarah@WholeandHeavenlyOven
Hope your boys feel better soon! Being sick this time of year is definitely no fun!
And these cookies look perfect! I’ve been looking for a classic snowball cookie recipe and I think these are it! :)
unexpectedlymagnificent
I had similar cookies last night! Now I want more of them. ;) Perfect timing with this recipe!
christinaschueler
I make these every Christmas, they are one of my absolute favorites!
Julia
Awww sorry to hear the babes were sick! Hopefully they’re better now just in time for Christmas festivities! These balls look ah-mazing! Snowballs/Mexican wedding cakes were always my fave to bake with my mom growing up. LOVE that they’re vegan and GF! You wizzard!