12/4/13

No Bake Orange Snowball Cookies


Be careful what you wish for. I was hoping for a little snow when I put up our Christmas decorations this past weekend and was greeted with 4 inches when I opened the garage door to leave for work yesterday. I looked at Amelia, looked at the very impractical ballet flats I had chosen to wear that day (nope, I definitely didn't check the weather that morning before getting dressed) and went back inside for some boots for the both of us. Eight more inches of snow were added to our front porch before the end of the day, and I'm not even bothering to measure the additional snowfall from overnight. 

The bright spot in my day yesterday, though, was after a two hour messy commute home and nearly sliding into another car on the freeway, I came home to a mostly clear driveway courtesy of my husband's younger cousin who lives next door. Given that my husband had to work late last night, this pregnant mama was very much relieved to see that she would not have to bundle up her toddler and spend a couple hours clearing the driveway to end her day. For any of you out there wondering if there is some nice Christmas present you could give your neighbor this year, let me suggest sneaking a driveway shoveling in somehow. Trust me, your neighbor will love you. 

It just seemed fitting to share this snowball recipe today with all the snow that we got in our area the past few days. These cookies are about as easy as it comes, but they taste like a creamsicle and are fun and festive to boot. They'd be great for holiday gift giving or just to serve to family. They're also great for making with kids - that is if your kiddos love to watch you whirl stuff around in the food processor as much as my little girl does. If you have a food processor it will do most of the work for you - chopping up the coconut into small pieces, chopping in the nuts, and making crumbs out of the Nilla wafers. If you don't have a food processor you can still chop by hand and be done in no time. All the chopped ingredients are mixed together with some softened butter, orange juice concentrate and powdered sugar, then rolled into balls, topped with coconut and put in the fridge to set up. The cookies have a dense-yet-soft consistency with a great, strong orange flavor that only gets better with time. 

No Bake Orange Snowball Cookies

Heat Oven To 350 Published 12/04/2013
No Bake Orange Snowball Cookies

Ingredients

  • 1 12 oz box vanilla wafers (a few brands are 12 oz per box. Some are 11 oz. If you only find an 11 oz box, add 1/3 cup more powdered sugar to the recipe)
  • 2 cups powdered sugar
  • 1 6 oz can orange juice concentrate (about 3/4 cup)
  • 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 1/2 cup butter (1 stick) softened
  • 1 cup walnuts or pecans
  • 2 cups sweetened coconut flakes

Instructions

  1. In a food processor, crush vanilla wafers to fine crumbs. (Or place in a plastic bag and crush with a rolling pin.) Put the crumbs in a large bowl.
  2. Add coconut flakes to food processor and pulse until pieces are finely chopped. Add chopped coconut to a shallow bowl.
  3. Add pecans or walnuts to the food processor and pulse until finely chopped. Add nuts to vanilla wafer crumbs in the large bowl and stir in powdered sugar, orange juice, vanilla extract and butter. Add more powdered sugar as needed to make the dough stiff enough to handle. (It will be slightly sticky.)
  4. Shape dough into 1 inch balls and roll in coconut. Place on a cookie sheet and refrigerate until firm. (Overnight is best.)
Yield: 4 dozen cookies
Prep Time: 15 min
Cook time: None
Recipe Source: Adapted slightly from penzeys.com

8 Click For Comments:

These are so good. My sister gave me the recipe for these years ago, though it didn't have the nuts. She also called them "Orange Balls of Happiness". We tripled or quadrupled the recipe for her wedding reception. They were good, but I haven't made very many since then.

Yikes, I do not envy you! I always look forward to the first snow of the season, but I'd really prefer not to see it until late December or early January... The flavors in these cookies sound amazing, I wonder if I could make them without the nuts, or sub something in in their place.

What a wonderful holiday treat. I know they are just delicious. Thanks for sharing this one.

Wow, I'm so jealous of your snowfall! And how very appropriate these cookies are :) They look delicious!

yum...I must make these! snow...just not a fan. We get our fair share and then some here in NE Ohio (thank you lake Erie). :)

Yum! I love that these are no-bake and look like mini snowballs. No snow in Texas yet, but it's unusually chilly.

I love this spin on the traditional snow ball cookies, and that combination of flavors sounds delicious!

I call these "Florida Snowballs," since here in Florida, we have fresh oranges instead of fresh snow. :-)

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