Snow Ball Cookies
As I’ve mentioned about me, I hail from the beautiful coastal town of Kerala called Kannur. Now let me tell you a snippet about Kannur. The first cake baked in India was from Kannur! Interesting isn’t it? Who would have thought that cake, which is still associated with luxury and grandeur in India, was first baked in a small coastal town of Kerala! The first cake was baked in Thalassery which is a small town in the district of Kannur. It was baked by Mambally Bapu in his Royal Biscuit Factory, founded in 1880. This fact or piece of history is something that I’m, like a lot of fellow Kannurians, proud of!
Coming from a town that has a history of baking and baked products , I always had access to the best baked goodies. Be it the most famous Kerala plum cake, coconut macaroons, royal iced Christmas cakes, biscuits or other baked products. At our place, while we visit our friends or relatives we carry cakes, biscuits etc. Gifting a cake for Christmas was and still is a norm! Imagine my shock when I moved to another city and found that baked products were not available in the scale we get it in Kannur! In most of the other cities it’s sweets that dominate the shelves. It’s always North Indian sweets! And if there are cakes, then it has to be ones dunked in sugar syrup, thickly coated with whipped cream and thus taking off all the glory of a beautiful cake!
The bakery we frequented while I was a child was Sheen. They were the undisputed champions amongst bakeries. They had arrays of glass jars with beautifully stacked biscuits and macaroons and the lovely looking “Snow Ball Cookies”. What is a Snow Ball Cookie? They look like snowballs! White dust on the cookie, which makes you wonder how it would be to taste? Would it be marshmellowy? Definitely soft! And then you bite, and its crispy, crunchy and crumbly! I love these wonderful cookies and once I shifted to Mumbai, I missed having them. I decided to bake them at home and searched for the recipe. These cookies are also called Russian Cookies or Mexican Wedding Cookies. These are easy to make and can be a beautiful addition to your dessert table.
Snow Ball Cookies
Ingredients
- 1 cup Butter at room temperature
- ⅓ cup Granulated sugar
- 2 tsps Vanilla extract
- ¼ tsp Salt
- 2 cups All-purpose flour
- 2 cups Cashews chopped
- 1½ cups Powdered sugar
Instructions
- Cream together butter, sugar, vanilla, and salt, using an electric whisker.
- Fold the flour in two batches into this creamy mixture. Add the chopped cashew nuts and mix it well.
- Cover and refrigerate the dough for atleast 45 minutes. You can refrigerate the dough for upto 5 days or freeze it upto 2 months.
- Pre-heat the oven to 180°C. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
- Take around 1 tablespoon of the chilled dough between your palms and roll it into a round shape. Do not flatten the dough. Place the dough 2 inches apart on the parchment sheet.
- Repeat the process till the baking sheet is covered. Bake the cookies in the pre-heated oven for 15 minutes. Do not overbake as it will result in hard cookies.
- Cool the cookies for roughly 5 minutes. Roll each of the cookies in the powdered sugar, while still warm. This will ensure that the sugar sticks to the cookie.
- After all the cookies are rolled, repeat the process of rolling them in the sugar.
- Once the cookies are well cooled, store them in airtight containers and consume within 5 days. Though let me warn you it won't last a day!
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