These are my riff on those nutty, icing sugar or caster sugar coated almond sandies or Mexican wedding cookies, but made nut free. The white snowy coating of icing sugar makes these perfect for the Christmas season and they'd look gorgeous alongside some other cute little petit fours with a strong coffee at the end of Christmas lunch. Then again, these are delicious enough for anytime of day or year.

By leaving out the nuts you end up with a surprisingly soft filling that is subtly spiced, but enough to get a proper hint of Christmas. We found them remarkably moreish, and I hope you do too.

We might leave some of these out for Father Christmas this year, although the powdery sugary coating may make an awful mess on his lovely red suit, so don't feel too bad if you devour them all before he arrives and you have to leave out a less exciting cookie!

I'm trying to post 12 recipes of Advent this year, so look out for more exciting festive themed recipes to come in the next few weeks. Any Christmas recipe you're lacking and you'd like a recreation then get in touch and i'll do my best 🙂

Snowball Cookies
(dairy-free, nut-free, egg-free, soya-free, sesame-free, vegetarian and vegan)

makes about 14-16

80g dairy-free margarine
80g icing sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla
1.2 tsp cinnamon
150g plain flour
pinch of salt
20-30g icing sugar to roll in

  1. Preheat the oven to 170 degrees fan/180 degrees non-fan
  2. Line a cookie sheet with parchment
  3. Cream together the margarine and icing sugar until light and fluffy, add in the vanilla and cinnamon.
    sift in the flour and salt and combine to form a soft dough
  4. Roll into marble sized balls and placed, spaced apart on the line cookie sheet
  5. Bake for 10 minutes, until risen and a tiny hint of colour
  6. Cool for 5 minutes and then roll in the icing sugar, making sure they are liberally covered in the icing sugar 'snow'