Go Back

Tropical Snowball Cookies - Coconut Lime Macadamia Snowball Cookies

Shanna
Classic snowball cookies made tropical with the additions of lime and coconut as well as macadamia nuts in place of traditional pecans. Melt in your mouth cookie goodness.
Print Recipe Pin Recipe
Prep Time 15 minutes
Cook Time 10 minutes
Additional Time 2 hours
Total Time 2 hours 25 minutes
Servings 36 Cookies

Ingredients
  

  • 1 cup butter 8oz/226g
  • ½ cup powdered sugar 2 oz/60g
  • 1 tablespoon cornstarch
  • 2 ¼ C all purpose flour 10 ¼ oz/290g
  • ½ teaspoon salt 2g
  • ½ cup finely chopped macadamia nuts 2 ½ oz/74g
  • ½ cup shredded unsweetened coconut flakes 9 (1 ¾ oz/50g)
  • 2 teaspoon lime zest
  • For rolling:
  • 2 cups powdered sugar 8 ½ oz/240g

Instructions
 

  • If the macadamia nuts you are using aren’t ground, take ¼ cup of the flour and grind the nuts with it in a food processor of blender. Pulse a few times, don’t over blend.
  • Cream the butter and sugar together in a stand mixer, or in a large bowl using a hand mixer. Whisk together the remaining ingredients then add to the mixer. Mix until just combined. It will be little crumbly but that is ok. Chill the dough in a bowl covered in plastic wrap/cling film for at least 2 hours. 
  • When ready to bake heat oven to 350 Deg F ( 177 Deg C) and prepare baking sheets with parchment paper. Pour powered sugar into a shallow bowl or dish
  • Roll out scant tablespoon sized dough balls ( ½ ounce each) and place an inch or so apart on the prepared baking sheets. 
  • Bake between 10 and 15 minutes, you want the bottom edges to start to turn golden brown. 
  • Let cool for 2 minutes, then roll in powdered sugar, covering cookies completely. Cool the cookies all the way and roll again in the powdered sugar. 
  • These cookies keep well in an airtight container at room temperature for a few days, in the freezer for a few months. 

Notes

  • If using whole nuts, grind them with a little bit of the flour from the recipe. Don't add more flour. This will help them from becoming nut butter. Trust me on this one. I have made nut butters way too often before using this trick. You can also do this with a little of the powdered sugar in place of the flour, I find that not every recipe that needs ground nuts calls for powdered sugar so I stick with using flour
  • Cornstarch is your friend. Don't skip this step. It's important for tender, soft cookies
  • Chill the dough before using. Then let thaw slightly so its easy to scoop out the dough to roll. You can make these right away after making the dough, but there is a chance they will spread a little more even with the cornstarch. I am all about chilling cookie doughs before baking. 
  • Instead of using a scoop for these, I weight out the dough then roll. I use ½ oz per cookie. A scant tablespoon size. You can make them a little bigger, but I wouldn't go any smaller
  • Since these cookies don't spread you can bake a lot on one cookie sheet at once. I use parchment paper for these cookies. 
  • Bake at 350 Deg F ( 177 C) for 10-15 min. I give a 5 min variation because some ovens run hot. Like mine does. I really need to get it adjusted. But. You don't want to overbake, just bake until the bottom edges start to brown.