I didn’t really have a plan when I started in on this recipe. I knew that I wanted to make snowball cookies, because afterall, it is the “Winter of Discontent” here in greater Boston. But I had made snowball cookies before (during the snowstorm of February 2013, in fact) and I don’t like to repeat exact recipes. So rummaging through the pantry, I came up with a bag of unsalted pistachios and some homemade cherry jam. Added some cardamom for a winning combination.
Ingredients
1 cup unsalted butter, softened to room temperature
3 tablespoons milk
1/2 cup powdered sugar, plus extra for coating
2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
Pinch of salt
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 teaspoon ground cardamom
1 cup chopped pistachios
1/2 cup black cherry jam
Directions
In the work bowl of your stand mixer, add the butter, milk, sugar, and vanilla and blend on medium speed. Add the mixed dry ingredients a little at a time while mixing on medium speed, then the milk. Add the pistachios to the cookie dough and mix until they are chopped up nicely and well blended into the dough. Wrap the dough in plastic wrap and chill in the refrigerator for 1 hour.
Preheat oven to 400F. Prepare cookie sheets with silpat or parchment paper.
Break off 2-inches of dough with your hand and roll into a ball using both hands. Use a knife to slice the balls in half. Use your thumbs to make an indentation in the middle of each half, and fill each half with a half teaspoonful of jam. Press the halves back together and pinch all along the seam with your index finger and thumb, then smooth the dough out by gently rolling between your hands again.
Bake the cookies at 400 degrees F for 10 minutes, then remove from the oven and transfer to a cooling rack and let cool for 15-20 minutes (slightly warm, but neither hot nor room temperature). Roll in powdered sugar and place back onto the cooling rack. Let the cookies cool for a minimum of 2 hours, then roll in the powdered sugar again for a second coat.
