4 Ingredient Healthier Snowball Cookies (No Flour, Eggs or Refined Sugar)
These healthier snowball cookies have a melt-in-your-mouth texture just like classic snowball cookies. They need just 4 ingredients and don’t contain any wheat flour, eggs, or refined sugar. The cookies are easy to make and store well. They can be made ahead of time and are great for gifting.
These snowball cookies are an easy festive cookie to make this holiday season. They store well, so they are great for gifting or making for an event.
Ingredients
- Almond flour
- Maple syrup
- Butter
- Powdered sweetener
Almond flour: Make sure to use superfine almond flour, which has a consistency more like flour. The finer texture helps produce a melt-in-your-mouth texture.
Maple syrup: Instead of regular sugar, the cookies are sweetened with a little maple syrup. Maple syrup also acts as a binding agent.
Butter: Butter is used in these cookies to give them their buttery, soft and melty texture.
Powdered sweetener: Snowball cookies are usually rolled in powdered sugar. You can use powdered sugar or a powdered sweetener substitute to keep the cookies a little healthier and refined sugar free. Instead of rolling the cookies in the powdered sweetener, I dusted it over the cookies. I prefer this method because less sweetener is used and the cookies have a soft dusting of sweetener on top rather than being caked in powdered sweetener.
How to Make Healthier Snowball Cookies
- The almond flour, melted butter and maple syrup are mixed together until a soft dough forms.
- Use a 1 tablespoon cookie scoop to scoop the dough and roll each dough piece into a smooth ball.
- Bake the cookies for about 15 minutes or until lightly golden on top.
- Allow the cookies to cool. Then dust the cookies with powdered sweetener by sifting the powdered sweetener through a fine mesh strainer.
Texture
These cookies have a texture very similar to classic snowball cookies. The cookies are soft, buttery and melt-in-your-mouth. Classic snowball cookies usually include chopped nuts so even though you taste the almonds, it still tastes like a snowball cookie. The cookies are not as sweet as classic snowball cookies since they are meant to be a little healthier.
Expert Tips
- Make sure to use superfine almond flour and not regular almond flour or almond meal because the latter two are not fine enough.
- You can leave the cookies plain without any powdered sweetener and they still taste good, but dusting them in powdered sugar or powdered sweetener creates a more melty texture and gives the cookies their classic snowball appearance.
- Instead of rolling the cookies in powdered sugar, the cookies are dusted with powdered sugar or powdered sweetener. This ensures the cookies are evenly covered in just a light, soft layer of powder without using too much sugar or sweetener.
More Holiday Cookie Recipes
4 Ingredient Healthier Snowball Cookies
Ingredients
- 2 1/2 cups (236g) superfine blanched almond flour, see note
- 8 tbsp (110g) unsalted butter, melted
- 4 1/2 tbsp (67ml) maple syrup
- 2 tbsp (22g) powdered sweetener or more as needed, can also use powdered sugar
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C) and line a large baking sheet with parchment paper.
- In a large mixing bowl, add in the almond flour, melted butter, and maple syrup, Mix with a spatula until a soft, scoopable dough forms. If your dough is too dry, add a splash more of maple syrup.
- Use a 1 tablespoon cookie scoop to portion the dough. Roll each dough between your hands to form a mostly smooth ball. Place the balls back onto the baking sheet, spacing them about 1 inch apart.
- Bake for 12-20 minutes, or until the the edges and top are lightly golden. Allow the cookies to fully cool.
- Add 2 tbsp of powdered sweetener to a fine mesh strainer and dust the tops of the cookies with powdered sweetener. If needed, you can add more powdered sweetener in order to fully cover the cookies.
- Store cookies in an airtight container. Cookies can be kept for a few days at room temperature and longer in the fridge or freezer.
Notes
- Recipe lightly adapted from Conscious Plant Kitchen
- Almond flour note: Make sure to use superfine almond flour. When measuring the almond flour with a measuring cup, make sure to use a spoon to scoop out the almond flour into the measuring cup and then level off with a knife. Do not directly scoop the almond flour using the measuring cup because this will result in too much almond flour.
- I used Kirkland superfine almond flour to make these cookies.
- Estimated nutrition assumes a powdered allulose on the cookies. If you use regular powdered sugar, the estimated nutrition will be slightly higher but it shouldn't be that much higher since only about 2 tbsp of sugar is used and some of it doesn't end up on the cookies.
Can you use almond protein powder instead of almond flour?
Sorry, we haven’t tested this recipe with almond protein powder so we’re not sure what the results would be!
I assume my batter was wet because I didn’t have superfine almond flour. I added more almond flour till I got the required consistency. They turned out perfect for our taste. Dusted with icing mixture because it is less sweet. Thank you for sharing this recipe. It gets a
5 + star from my family.
We’re so glad you loved these cookies!
Very good. Will add a little cinnamon next time. Thank you for the delicious recipes!
We’re so glad you enjoyed this recipe!
5
Thank you!
Are there substitutions that could be used for the maple syrup? Such thing as allulose or stevia probably couldn’t be used because of the liquid factor, correct? I was hoping to make them completely sugar-free.
Sorry, we haven’t tested this recipe with a substitute for the maple syrup so we’re not sure which ones would work best!
Good
Thank you!
Can I use coconut oil instead of butter?
We haven’t tested these cookies with coconut oil instead of butter so we’re not sure if it would work the same!
SO good! My dough was very soft with the 2 1/2 cups of flour, so the cookies didn’t stay in ball shape but spread into rounds. I added more flour to the remaining dough and then the ball shape held, but I think I liked them better spread a bit. I’d like to try them with coconut flour.
We’re glad you enjoyed these! Let us know how the coconut flour works.
Powdered sugar is a refined sugar!! I bet these are delicious
These call for a powdered sweetener substitute to keep the cookies a little healthier and refined sugar free but you could also use regular powdered sugar if you wanted to!
Thank u was really good.
We’re so glad you enjoyed this recipe!
Can we use regular flour or no?
Sorry, we haven’t tested this recipe with regular flour!
ExActly the kind of recipe I’m looking for, ThAnk you so much!! I’ve had my eye on peppermint or candy cane snowballs… What do you think about adding crushed candy canes to this recipe?
We haven’t tried adding crushed candy canes but it should work fine. Let us know if you try it!
More of a question… can you substitute coconut flour or oat flour for the almond flour?
Sorry, we haven’t tested this recipe with a substitute for the almond flour!
Absolutely delicious!
Thank you for this healthy version of a holiday favorite!!
We’re so glad you enjoyed this recipe!
Temperature?
These are baked at 350°F (175°C).
Change your format!! I can hardly read it. More room for ads but can’t see the recipes. What happened?? It was great before!!
Thanks for looking into this for me and probably many more of us.
Thank you for your feedback! We will keep this in mind.
Scrumptious, as usual!!!
Thank you! We’re so glad you enjoyed this recipe!
Can you use agave syrup instead of maple? Maple syrup is so expensive here.
Sorry, we haven’t tested this recipe with agave syrup!
Snow ball cookies
If someone has an allergic reaction to almond flour.
Which flour can we use as a substitute for nut allergy
Sorry, we haven’t tested this recipe with a substitute for the almond flour!
Sounds delicious
Thank you!