December 4, 2009

Snowball Cookies

Well, it certainly didn’t take long for me to fall behind on posting my holiday cookies, did it?  As much as I am able to plan which cookies I’d like to bake, shoot photos, and edit, I run out of time when it comes to posting — especially when the new lights I’ve been using for my night photography aren’t quite delivering the results I’d like, but I continue to learn.  I’ve also never been good at planning a variety of posts and lining them all up to auto-publish, but  I’ll have to work on that, too.

In the meantime, I’ll share these snowball cookies with you.  They’re my favorites so far of those I’ve made this season:  a pleasant bite of  citrus with the coolness that a dusting of powdered sugar always provides.

They’re just about the only thing remotely snowy I’ll ever see in our extreme southwest corner of the country!



Coconut-Orange Snowball Cookies

  • 1-1/4 cups sweetened flaked coconut
  • 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
  • 2-1/4 cups sifted powdered sugar (sifted, then measured)
  • 1-1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
  • 3/4 teaspoon coconut extract
  • 2-1/4 cups all purpose flour
  • 1-1/2 tablespoons grated orange peel
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt

The directions can be found here.

Notes:

  • For those of you who have stopped reading because you don’t like coconut, I can say that these have tricked a few people who just didn’t know the coconut was in them.  I used unsweetened coconut, it’s toasted and cooled, then nearly ground with a rolling pin.  It blends right in with the other ingredients.
  • I chose not to use coconut flavoring because I never enjoy artificial flavors in anything.  I used organic orange extract instead and omitted the orange zest, although I’d include it next time to accent the orange flavor even more.
  • I’m used to cookies of this type having nuts, and I didn’t miss them in this variety but know they would be excellent.
  • You’ll definitely need to roll these in the powdered sugar more than twice after they’re out of the oven.  I also gave them a healthy sprinkle after they were placed on the platter.

Don’t forget to check out my fellow cookie bakers this holiday season.  Claire of The Barefoot Kitchen, Courtney of Coco Cooks, and Judy of No Fear Entertaining who are all returning this year, and Michelle of Big Black Dog, Di of Di’s Kitchen Notebook, Renee of Flamingo Musings, and Tiffany of The Nesting Project who will be joining us this year.  A special nod goes to Andrea of Andrea’s Recipes who started the group last year, but cannot join in on the craziness this year.