Day 6 of 7: Christmas Cookies - Tis the season for baking!

Snow Balls!

Beat together in a large bowl:

1 cup softened butter
1/2 cup powdered sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla


Stir into the mixture above:

 2 1/4 cups sifted all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup finely chopped nuts - you can have some fun here and add almost any nut, or mini chocolate chips or crushed candy canes - throw in some festive sprinkles!  Or keep it simple and omit anything past the salt!

Shape the dough into 1 inch balls ( chill your dough if the butter was really soft and the dough is too soft to handle)  Then place the dough balls about 2" apart on an ungreased or parchment paper-lined cookie sheet and bake 8-10 minutes at 400*. The cookies just need to be "set" not browned.  Roll in powdered sugar immediately after removing them from the oven.  Cool completely and then roll again in powdered sugar!

If you choose to add crushed peppermints - add about 1/4 cup to the batter and skip rolling the cookies a second time in powdered sugar but roll in ~1/2 cup crushed peppermint candy instead.