With the holidays upon us, it is cookie time in our house.  When I was growing up, my mom made dozens upon dozens of cookies during the holidays.  I always loved eating the cookies, but even more than eating them, I loved the tradition of baking them.  So this year, I decided to begin the tradition with my own children, ages (almost) 5 and (almost) 3.  Don’t they look eager? (Note the cute holiday aprons; you could get one too at Sur la Table.)

“Snowballs” are one of my favorite types of holiday cookies.  Due to their ages, however, the kids were less than excited about the snowball cookies themselves.  I had to bribe them with the promise that we would make a later batch of chocolate chip cookies.  The upside of the bribe?  Now we have two batches of cookies to enjoy.

My first step was to call my mom for her recipe and here it is.  I doubled it, because I really like snowball cookies.  The double recipe made about 40 cookies.

Snowball Cookies

1/2 cup butter

2 tablespoons sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 teaspoon almond extract

3/4 cup chopped pecans

1 cup flour

1/4 teaspoon salt

powdered sugar, reserved

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Cream butter until light.  Add all other ingredients and blend.  Shape 1 inch balls on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper.  Bake 15 minutes at 350 degrees.  The cookies should be light in color – do not brown.  When the cookies are almost entirely cool, mix a few at a time in a bowl of powdered sugar.  Store in a cool dry place.  Dust lightly with powdered sugar before serving.

Enjoy!