Traditional Walnut Snowball Cookies

The season of Christmas baking has begun so get ready for a slew of recipes in the coming weeks. I was actually a bit happy to wake up to a dreary/rainy morning on Sunday because I knew it would be the perfect day to stay indoors and start my baking. One of the treats that I made were walnut snowball cookies.

I was asked to participate in the California Walnuts Holiday Blogger Challenge so I thought that this would be a great place to start. Although it's not an original recipe, it's a traditional tried-and-true Christmas recipe.

Walnut Snowball Cookies

• 1 cup flour
• 1 1/2 cups California walnuts (finely chopped)
• 2-3 tbsp sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup butter at room temperature (cut into pieces)
• pinch salt
• icing sugar

Mix dry ingredients together in a food processor. Add the vanilla extract and butter and process until the mixture looks like a coarse meal. Form the dough into small balls (about the size of a walnut coincidentally) and place onto a cookie sheet. Bake for 35 minutes at 300F.

When they are lukewarm roll the cookies in icing sugar and again when completely cooled.

Store in the refrigerator in a sealed container.

Did you know?

• walnuts are the only nut with a significant amount of omega-3 fatty acids
• due to omega-3's walnuts can lower cholesterol, protect the heart, defend against certain cancers and help ease symptoms of inflammatory diseases like arthritis
• the fat in walnuts is 72.4 percent heart-healthy polyunsaturated fat
• walnuts contain no cholesterol and no trans fat
• walnuts are an excellent source of magnesium, folic acid, thiamine, niacin, vitamin B6, iron, zinc and dietary fibre

For more info and recipes using walnuts check out http://www.walnutinfo.com/ .

Another recipe that I made on Sunday was homemade peppermint patties. Stay tuned!