Grain-Free Italian Wedding Snowball Cookies (Gluten-Free, Vegan, Paleo)

Snowball cookies are a classic nutty, buttery, sweet holiday dessert with many forms: Italian wedding cookies, Mexican wedding cookies, or Russian tea cakes! But this almond-based recipe for Grain-Free Italian Wedding Snowball Cookies is gluten-free, vegan, paleo, and sugar-free! Just 4 ingredients, they’re a healthy low-carb addition for the Christmas cookie tray!

Nutty, buttery, and sweet! These bitable balls of almond cookie goodness are going to be more than just a holiday cookie for you now! They’re so simple and so easy to bake, not to mention these grain-free snowball cookies are pretty darn healthy too! You only need 4 ingredients to make these cookies and just 15 minutes of baking time! They can be that last minute bake for any holiday party or…of course…for Santa’s cookie plate!

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What’s the difference between snowball cookies, Italian wedding, Mexican wedding, and Russian tea cakes?

I had no idea either. While these are regional variations (I’m sure your family calls them one of these names), it all comes down to the nut used in the cookie. I like to think of “Snowball Cookies” as the overarching base and a name everyone knows. But, Italian Wedding cookies are almond-based, Mexican Wedding cookies are walnut-based, and Russian Tea Cakes are pecan-based. Besides the differences in nuts, they’re all buttery cookie balls rolled in powdered sugar!

Can I used any nut in snowball cookies?

Sure! You can, but since I made these cookies grain-free, the easiest nut flour to get would be almond flour. These cookies typically contain an all-purpose flour in combination with a ground up nut. Since I’m swapping out all the flour for just nut-based flour, I didn’t have to grind a ton of my own almonds. I’m just using fine almond flour. If you want to use a difference nut…get grinding! You’ll have to process the nuts, like pecans or walnuts (hazelnuts would be good!), super fine to achieve the proper consistency for these grain-free cookies!

What else is used to make these grain and gluten-free vegan Italian wedding snowball cookies?

I chopped the ingredient list down to just 4 items! #1 super fine almond flour, #2 MELT vegan butter, #3 powdered erythritol (Swerve), and #4 vanilla extract! I know! So easy! They’re kind of like a healthy snack bites/bliss ball, except you do bake them. They are super low-carb, healthy high fat (…keto? I don’t know, you tell me), totally paleo, gluten-free, vegan, and sugar-free! They do contain tree nuts (obviously) so they are not top 8 allergen-free. You could perhaps swap a safe nut, maybe even try to get super fine ground sunflower seeds…The taste will be strong, but if you’re really dieing for a snowball cookie, give it a try and let me know!

How do you make snowball cookies?

All you have to do is mix together those four ingredients I listed above. The almond flour, vegan/soy-free butter (softened!), powdered sweetener, and vanilla. Then take about 1 tablespoon per cookie, roll the dough in your hands to form a ball, place it on a cookie sheet and bake those buttery babies for 15 minutes! Take them out of the oven and roll them in more powdered sweetener to give them their iconic sweet snowy white outside! A super easy process that the kids can join in on so you don’t have to get any powdered sugar on your hands…although I bet you want to 😉

Grain-Free Italian Wedding Snowball Cookies

Sweet, buttery, soft and delicious, but dairy-free, grain-free, and no sugar! Growing up, I never really knew what a snowball cookie was made out off. What could possibly be under that white powdered sugar coating? I always though it was just butter (gross!) Sugar coated butter! But, being that my Italian side of the family broke out ALL the cookies and pastries for Christmas, of course Italian Wedding cookies were always included on the dessert table. However, to my recollection…no one really chose the snowball cookies…they were always left all sad and lonely on the plate! Until now…

So tell me:

+ What do you call Snowball cookies in your family?

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