Snowball cookies are some of the easiest Christmas cookies you could make, and these peppermint snowball cookies are no exception! Candy cane lovers will adore this festive and flavorful variation on the classic snowball cookie. The crushed candy canes in the dough are so small, that they soften up nicely as the cookies bake and cool.
One reader, Lisa, commented: “Thank you for this recipe. It was a big hit at the cookie exchange! One of the guests gushed about how good they would be with hot chocolate. I know several people who love this type of cookie, and all of them said they were delicious… ★★★★★“
Snowball cookies have been around for ages, and are called by many names around the world. There’s just something so irresistible about these sweet-snow-covered cookies. They’re uniquely buttery and dense with a crumbly, melt-in-your-mouth texture similar to almond crescent cookies. I love all their many variations, and today’s peppermint version is definitely a new holiday favorite. (And these pistachio cookies are always a popular choice!)
While classic snowball cookies often include chopped nuts for added texture, today we’re replacing those with festive candy cane bits.
Here’s Why You’ll Love These Peppermint Snowball Cookies
- Buttery, dense, crumbly shortbread texture melts in your mouth
- Easy-to-make 1-bowl recipe
- Just 7 simple ingredients, and it’s an egg-free recipe
- Sweet minty flavor from crushed candy canes + peppermint extract
- Only 30 minutes of dough-chilling time
By the way, if you love peppermint you’ll want to try these peppermint meltaway cookies next.
Grab These 7 Simple Ingredients
Today’s cookies are mostly butter, flour, and confectioners’ sugar. The confectioners’ sugar not only goes into the cookie dough, but also coats the outside of the cookie for that iconic snow-dusted exterior. There are no eggs or leavening agents in these cookies.
- Butter: Creamed butter forms the base of these shortbread-style cookies.
- Confectioners’ Sugar: A little goes in the dough, and then you’ll roll the baked cookies in the rest.
- Vanilla Extract: Adds flavor, especially if using homemade vanilla extract.
- Peppermint Extract: The cookies’ first hint of mint comes from pure peppermint extract. It’s strong, so be sure to measure carefully.
- Flour: This is the structure of the cookie.
- Salt: To balance out the sweet.
- Crushed Candy Canes (or peppermint candies): You can often find candy cane baking bits in the grocery store around the holidays, but crushing them yourself is a great way to work out some holiday stress…I mean, so I hear. 😉
How to Make Peppermint Snowball Cookies
The cookie dough comes together in just 1 bowl. It will be super thick, to the point where you think it won’t come together. Turn your mixer up and watch the buttery goodness form before your eyes.
The dough will come together, I promise:
Chill the dough for 30 minutes to help that creamed butter solidify, which helps guarantee your rounded cookies stay… well, rounded! Without chilling, your cookies will be snow puddles, and not snowballs. 😉 If you want to have a few no-chill recipes in your holiday cookie lineup as well, these shortbread cookies and spritz cookies are always popular choices.
Use a Tablespoon measure to portion the chilled dough, and then roll into balls:
Unlike lemon crinkle cookies and chocolate crinkle cookies, we bake the cookies first and then we’ll roll in confectioners’ sugar… the best part of this iconic cookie!
How Do You Make the Confectioners’ Sugar Stick?
A double-dusting of “snow” is the key to beautiful snowballs!
After the cookies bake, roll each one in confectioners’ sugar while they are still slightly warm. As the cookies cool, the confectioners’ sugar will melt into them. That’s expected. After the cookies have cooled, roll them in confectioners’ sugar one more time, and they’ll be picture-perfect peppermint snowballs, all dressed and ready for their holiday cookie tray debut.
3 Success Tips
- Use proper room temperature butter. Like when making Christmas sugar cookies or butter cookies, if your butter is too soft when you start, it won’t form a sturdy base for your cookie dough. The cookies will over-spread and taste greasy.
- Make sure you use confectioners’ sugar (aka powdered sugar or icing sugar) in the cookie dough. Granulated sugar causes the cookies to over-spread and they’ll lose their “snowball” shape.
- Coat the cookies with confectioners’ sugar twice, once when warm and again when cool, because the first layer melts like a… well, a warm snowball!
This recipe is part of my annual cookie countdown called Sally’s Cookie Palooza. It’s the biggest, most delicious event of the year! Browse dozens of cookie recipes over on the Sally’s Cookie Palooza page.
Peppermint Snowball Cookies
- Prep Time: 45 minutes
- Cook Time: 15 minutes
- Total Time: 1 hour
- Yield: 36 cookies
- Category: Cookies
- Method: Baking
- Cuisine: American
Description
This cookie dough comes together with just 7 ingredients in 1 mixing bowl and only needs 30 minutes of refrigeration before baking. The crushed candy canes in the dough are so small that they soften up nicely as the cookies bake and cool.
Ingredients
Dough
- 1 cup (16 Tbsp; 226g) unsalted butter, softened to room temperature
- 3/4 cup (90g) confectioners’ sugar
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- 1 teaspoon peppermint extract
- 2 and 1/4 cups (281g) all-purpose flour (spooned & leveled)
- 1/8 teaspoon salt
- 1/3 cup (40g) crushed candy canes (about 3–4 regular-size candy canes)
Coating
- 1 and 1/4 cups (150g) confectioners’ sugar
Instructions
- In a large bowl using a handheld mixer or stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, beat the butter for 1 minute on medium speed until completely smooth and creamy. Add 3/4 cup (90g) confectioners’ sugar and beat on low speed until sugar is incorporated, then turn the mixer up to medium-high speed and beat until combined and creamy. Scrape down the sides and bottom of the bowl as needed. Next, beat in the vanilla and peppermint extracts on medium-high speed until combined. Add the flour and salt and beat on low speed. The dough will look dry and you may not think the flour will fully combine. Once all of the flour is incorporated, turn the mixer up to high speed. The dough will come together. Finally, beat in the crushed candy canes.
- Cover the cookie dough tightly and chill in the refrigerator for at least 30 minutes and up to 3 days. (If chilling for 3+ hours, make sure you let the cookie dough sit at room temperature for at least 30 minutes before rolling into balls. The cookie dough will be very stiff after being in the refrigerator for that long.)
- Preheat oven to 350°F (177°C). Line 2 large baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone baking mats. Set aside. Pour the confectioners’ sugar needed for the coating into a shallow bowl.
- Scoop or roll 1 Tablespoon (20g) of cookie dough per cookie. Roll into a ball and place on the baking sheets, at least 2 inches apart. Bake the cookies until golden brown on the bottom edges and just barely browned on top, about 15 minutes.
- Coating: Allow the cookies to cool for 5 minutes on the baking sheet, then very gently roll them in the confectioners’ sugar to coat completely. Place the cookies on wire racks to cool completely. The confectioners’ sugar will melt a bit and get sticky. Once the cookies have completely cooled, roll in confectioners’ sugar again. This is when the sugar coating will really stick.
- Cookies stay fresh covered at room temperature for up to 1 week.
Notes
- Make Ahead & Freezing Instructions: Baked cookies freeze well up to 3 months. Thaw in the refrigerator or at room temperature. Unbaked cookie dough balls freeze well for up to 3 months. Bake frozen cookie dough balls for an extra minute, no need to thaw. See this post on how to freeze cookie dough for more information and a video tutorial.
- Special Tools (affiliate links): Electric Mixer (Handheld or Stand) | Baking Sheets | Silicone Baking Mats or Parchment Paper | Glass Mixing Bowl | Cooling Rack
Reader Comments and Reviews
Could I shape these into crescent shape to show difference from regular snowballs
Hi Ali, yes, you can! Enjoy!
You mentioned replacing the chopped nuts with candy cane bits. Do you think it would work okay if you added some very finely chopped nuts as well as candy cane bits? Can’t wait to try these for the Christmas holidays. Thank you.
Hi Diane, we haven’t tested it but can’t see why you couldn’t use a mix of both!
Made these yesterday…made the dough evening before and put in refrigerator. It said let sit at least 30 minutes after taking out of refrigerator…it took almost 90 minutes before I could make balls to put on cookie sheets. Cookies are very good but lots of work for a few cookies. Look nice for a cookie plate. Just plan ahead to spend time for dough to soften before cooking.
Delicious & easy. The perfect holiday cookie.
My powdered sugar is very packed and clumpy. Do you measure before you sift or after .
Hi Donna, sifting isn’t necessary for this recipe, but if your sugar is clumpy you can measure, then sift, before adding to the dough.
Do you freeze the baked cookies after you roll them in the powdered sugar?
Hi Cally, you can roll the baked cookies in powdered sugar, and then freeze.
Is there a way to make these dairy free?
Hi Suzanne, we haven’t tested it, but you could try using a plant-based butter in place of the unsalted butter. Let us know if you do give it a try!
This was a hit! My husband even took some to work and they loved them.
I haven’t had snowballs in ages and these absolutely hit the spot! I used Hershey’s chocolate mint candy canes and they were perfect! There is just the slightest hint of chocolate in the peppermint that I find delightful! My husband is usually a chocolate lover and isn’t a fan of other sweets but he really enjoyed these! They are quite refreshing as well. I’ll definitely be making these again!
Can you substitute peppermint oil for the extract? If so, how much do you recommend? Also, can we add cocoa powder to add chocolate flavor? (I love peppermint and chocolate together!) Thanks for all your wonderful recipes!
Hi Candi, peppermint oil is quite potent, so you’d need less than the extract. Some say it’s about 4x as potent as extract, so you could start with only 1/4 teaspoon of the peppermint oil then adjust for future batches. We haven’t tried adding any cocoa to the cookies; you can certainly test it out, it just may take some tinkering since it isn’t always a 1:1 swap with flour. Let us know what you try!
I tried making this recipe with room temperature butter, putting the batter in the fridge for an hour, and putting the formed dough balls back into the fridge for another 20 minutes, but these completely flattened into crumbly pancakes in the oven. My mom also had the same problem when she tried making them. Any ideas what went wrong?
Hi Samantha, the candy canes can be finicky, and I wonder if they were accidentally over-measured, or even over-crushed? If you both try the recipe again, adding 2-3 extra Tablespoons of flour will help the cookies hold better shape.
Love your recipes. Thank you.
Made these this morning. There isn’t enough peppermint flavor for us. I followed the recipe by weight. Should I add more extract or candy cane in the future? Thanks.
Hi Maria, you could add a bit more extract for future batches. Thank you for giving this one a try!
Is the dough supposed to be crumbly? I used gf flour so wondering if that’s why. They also were a little dry, any suggestions?
Hi Rachel, yes, the dough is supposed to be a bit crumbly. Be sure to measure the flour by weighing it, or by spooning and leveling it. Scooping it will pack down the flour, even if you’re using gluten free flour.
Can i use the chocolate peppermint bark from Ghirardelli or do you think the chocolate would ooze out? I don’t have candy canes! Thank you
I haven’t tested that, but I can’t see why not! There may be a little more spread, but you can refrigerate the dough for longer and that could help.
Thank you for your quick response, I’m going to try it with the peppermint bark. Fingers crossed.
I just made these cookies liking the idea of adding a peppermint twist (no pun intended) to a snowball cookie recipe. However I got nervous because the peppermint extract smelled strong I used Mccormick which has alcohol in it and I actually used less than required. Is that the right ingredient? How would omitting the extract and just doing the mint pieces be? Also, mine didn’t coat well with the confectioner sugar did I wait too long to make the first coat( did 5 minutes). Other than that I LOVED the texture of the cookies and the crunch of the tiny peppermint pieces. Hope to make again with a few revisions possibly.
Hi Christine, yes, I usually use McCormick peppermint extract. You weren’t using peppermint oil, were you? You can absolutely omit the peppermint extract though, with no other changes to the recipe. Thank you for trying this!
We’ve just made these – our first Christmas cookies of the year! My 5 year old had fun and loved rolling her cooled cookie in icing sugar (I did the first round of rolling!) Mine seemed to flatten out slightly more than yours but they taste amazing. Thank you!
My recipes calls for Using Hersey chocolate kisses on top of the cookie. So when it comes out of the oven I place a unwrapped kiss on top of the cookie. They are delicious that way.
If we freeze the baked cookies would we roll them twice in powdered sugar before freezing? Can’t wait to try these.
Hi Denise, yes, you can coat the baked cookies in powdered sugar before freezing. Enjoy!
I have been using your various recipes for 5 years now….very easy to follow and other than an error or two on my part….Everyone enjoys my baking results.
Sooo, Thank you Sally
O’ I’m 82 yrs young
Thank you so much for making our recipes, Bill!
I made these today.
So tasty and easy!
Is it possible to substitute in a little bit of cocoa powder for some of the confectioners sugar to make these chocolate peppermint?
Hi Lily, you can certainly try it. You may want to sub it in for some flour, instead, since you’ll lose sweetness by removing some sugar.
Hi!
Is there anything I should be mindful of if I’m going to double the recipe?
Thanks
Courtney, the dough may take longer to come together, and will be very heavy in the mixer. If the dough is really dry, a few drops of water will help bring it together.
These were delicious! Easy to make and so cute!
Hi! Mine turned into snow puddles. Any ideas? I used room temp butter and refrigerated overnight. Could I have handled them too much when rolling? They still look like they’ll be delicious, they’re just definitely not snow “balls”!
Hi NK! As you roll out the dough, it can sometimes get a bit too warm and cause the cookies to spread like you mention. For next time, you can place the rolled cookie dough balls back in the refrigerator for just a few minutes before baking. This should help them keep shape a bit better. We’re glad you still enjoyed them!
These are so tasty. Baked half of the dough and froze the rest for closer to Christmas. Peppermint flavor is perfect.
Quick question about how many candy canes did you need to get the recipe amount? Thank you!
Usually about 3 to 4 regular size candy canes
Just made these yummy peppermint goodie’s! Turned out perfect thanks sally!
Can you use almond flour?
Hi Annette, we don’t recommend it. Almond flour has very different baking properties than all-purpose flour, and it’s not always a 1:1 swap. For best results, stick with all-purpose flour here!
What about 1:1 GF. Flour?
Hi ST, we haven’t tested that substitution either, so we’re unsure of the results. Although some readers report using an all-purpose 1:1 gluten-free flour in many of my recipes with success, you should expect slightly different results anytime you substitute ingredients. Let us know if you give anything a try.
my fam loves peppermint with pecans. could pecans be added to these?? or is it better to add crushed candy canes to pecan cookies? Which recipe?
Hi Terri, it may be easiest to just add peppermint extract to the pecan snowball cookies. If you want chunks of both crushed candy canes and chopped pecans, you can use the regular snowballs recipe and add 1/3 cup (40g) crushed candy canes.
These look stunning!
Okay Sally, you’ve convinced me – it’s time to plan my christmas cookie baking, yay 🙂
I’ve never been big on snowballs, but I’m sure my 5yo will love making these!
We hope they’re a hit, Liz!