Snowball cookies

Today I continued baking treats for the Christmas hot cocoa bar. 

I made the snowball cookies, one of my mother's recipes with a few changes. I used Smart Balance instead of butter, reduced the sugar amount, and used whole wheat flour instead of white flour. The result was pretty good. If I need to tweak something next time, it would be to add more walnuts (instead of 1 cup, I would add up to 2 cups).

I have previously experimented with this recipe by adding raisins to the walnuts (1 cup walnuts and 1 cup raisins), or using only raisins (instead of walnuts).  

Have fun when baking cookies and make some healthy changes: for example, try to reduce the sugar further by adding more flavor to the dough with lemon or orange zest. Or use nuts other than walnuts (e.g., almonds, pistachios, etc.). 

Next time I bake these cookies, I will reduce the sugar further (to 1/4 cup), by adding 1 cup of walnuts and 1 cup of raisins, and increasing the flavor with a teaspoon or two of rum, an additional teaspoon of vanilla and orange zest.

I recently discovered that the snowball cookie recipe is very similar to the recipe for Mexican wedding cookies. However, the snowball cookies have eggs in them.


Snowball cookies
You need:
2½ cups of whole wheat flour, 1 cup Smart Balance (or butter), 1/2 cup granulated sugar, 2 eggs, 1 cup (or more) cut walnuts, 2 tsps vanilla, and for covering the cookies: 2 Tbsp powdered sugar mixed with 2 Tbsp arrowroot powder .

Directions:
Combine flour and Smart Balance by hand until the mixture resembles crumbs. Beat together the eggs, vanilla and granulated sugar, and add them to the dough. Add the walnuts. Mix the dough by hand, shape into balls of one inch in diameter.  Bake on a cookie sheet (covered with a no-stick spray) at 375°F for 10-12 minutes.  While the cookies are still warm, roll in white powdered sugar*.

*To reduce the amount of powdered sugar, use one part powdered sugar and one part arrowroot powder.

How less sinful are these home-made cookies compared to the store-bought ones?  According to my calculations, one snowball cookie has 2.0 - 2.5 g of sugar. Store-bought cookies contain anywhere from 3 to 8 grams of sugar.   This Holiday season, when you reach for the cookie jar, consider that added sugar is difficult to keep track of (it is in everything we eat today, even breads and soups have it).  How many cookies can you eat "guilt-free" a day? I would probably stop eating after the fourth snowball cookie.