Strawberry Snowball Cookies
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These strawberry snowball cookies are soft, buttery, and coated in a pretty pink strawberry powdered sugar. Made with freeze-dried strawberries, chocolate chips, and pecans, they’re a fun twist on a classic.
Strawberry Chocolate Chip Snowball Cookies
These strawberry snowball cookies are a fun twist on a classic, with a buttery base and soft melt-in-your-mouth texture in every bite. If you’ve made my chocolate snowball cookies, this version follows a similar style with chocolate chips and pecans for extra flavor.
The strawberry powdered sugar coating is what makes them stand out, adding real strawberry flavor and that soft pink color. They’re perfect for Valentine’s Day like these Valentine sugar cookie cups, but honestly feel just as right for summer baking too.
Ingredient Notes
Find the full recipe with printable directions below.
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- Butter: Use softened salted butter so it creams easily with the sugar and gives the cookies a rich, buttery flavor. If you only have unsalted butter that is fine, but you will need to add scant 1/4 teaspoon salt.
- Sugar: Granulated sugar sweetens the dough and helps create that classic tender, buttery snowball cookie texture.
- Egg: A room temperature egg mixes more smoothly into the dough and helps bind everything together.
- Vanilla extract: Adds warm flavor and rounds out the strawberry and chocolate nicely.
- All-purpose flour: Regular all-purpose flour gives these cookies enough structure while still keeping them soft and tender.
- Freeze-dried strawberries: These are blended with powdered sugar to make the strawberry coating. They add real strawberry flavor without adding moisture to the cookies.
- Mini chocolate chips: Mini chips work best here because they mix evenly into the dough and keep the cookies easy to scoop and shape. Try swapping for mini white chocolate chips!
- Pecans: Finely chop the pecans so they blend into the dough without making the cookies crumbly. Walnuts work well as a substitute.
- Powdered sugar: This is used for rolling the cookies after baking. You can adjust the amount depending on how heavily coated you want them.
How to Make Strawberry Snowball Cookies
Start by creaming the softened butter and sugar together until light and fluffy. This step helps give the cookies that soft, tender texture, so don’t rush it.
Mix in the egg and vanilla until fully combined, then gradually add the flour and mix just until a soft dough forms.
Fold in the finely chopped pecans and mini chocolate chips so everything is evenly distributed throughout the dough.
Scoop the dough into small balls using a teaspoon-sized cookie scoop and place them on a parchment-lined baking sheet, leaving a little space between each one.
Bake until the bottoms are lightly golden. The tops will stay pale, so flip one over to check doneness and avoid overbaking.
While the cookies bake, blend the powdered sugar and freeze-dried strawberries until you have a soft pink strawberry sugar.
Let the cookies cool for a couple of minutes, then roll them in the strawberry powdered sugar while they are still warm so the coating sticks.
Recipe Tips
- Check the bottoms, not the tops: These cookies stay pale on top, so don’t wait for browning. Flip one over and look for lightly golden bottoms to know they’re done.
- Roll while warm: Coating the cookies while they’re still warm helps the strawberry powdered sugar stick and soak in for better flavor.
- Roll twice for full coverage: After the first coating, the sugar will absorb and look a little patchy. A second roll gives them that soft, bakery-style finish.
- Finely chop the nuts: Smaller pieces mix more evenly into the dough and keep the cookies from falling apart.
- Use a small cookie scoop: A teaspoon-sized cookie scoop keeps the cookies uniform so they bake evenly and finish at the same time.
Strawberry Snowball Cookies
Equipment
Ingredients
- 3/4 cup salted butter , softened
- 1/2 cup granulated sugar
- 1 egg , room temperature
- 2 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 cup pecans , finely chopped
- 1 cup mini chocolate chips
- 1/2 – 1 cup powdered sugar
- 1 ounce freeze dried strawberries
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350°F and line two baking sheets with parchment paper.
- In a large mixing bowl, cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy (5-7 minutes). Beat egg and vanilla into mixture. Gradually add flour into the mixture and beat to combine.
- Fold in pecans and mini chocolate chips into the dough.
- Using a teaspoon sized cookie scoop (size #110), shape dough into balls and place approximately 2 inches apart on parchment lined baking sheets.
- Place in oven and bake until set and bottoms are lightly browned, 15-20 minutes depending on your oven.
- While cookies are baking place powdered sugar and freeze dried strawberries in a food processor and blend for about a minute until the sugar is pastel colored pink. Add a few more strawberries for a darker pastel color. (I start with about 1/2 cup each powdered sugar and strawberries in my mini processor and adjust from there).
- Cool cookies on pans 2-3 minutes, then roll warm cookies in strawberry powdered sugar.
- Cool completely on wire racks, then roll cookies in strawberry powdered sugar a second time.
