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These almond snowball cookies are spiced Christmas cookies with a twist: they’re naturally gluten free, made with almond flour and cozy chai spices!
It’s easy to judge a cookie by its appearance. For every good recipe we share, there’s usually several behind-the-scenes failures. And that’s absolutely the case with these chai spice almond snowball cookies! These cookies were months in the making. The challenge: we wanted to create a tasty, gluten-free Christmas cookie with normal sounding ingredients. After a few attempts that were complete bombs, a new idea for chai spiced almond snowball cookies surfaced. After numerous attempts and melted cookies and lots of taste testing and maybe a little cursing (oops!), this recipe came to be. Keep reading for this chai spiced almond snowball cookies recipe.
Related: Perfect Homemade Peanut Butter Cups
How to make chai spice almond snowball cookies
What came from all the trial and error is a buttery, rich chai spice cookie that got rave reviews from friends and family alike. The cardamom is the star of the show–I never realized cardamom is what gives chai spice its familiar zing! Try to find some ground cardamom for this recipe. With the leftover cardamom, you may find yourself wanting to add a pinch in all of your baked goods! We’ve used coconut sugar an alternative sweetener that’s still sugary but a bit lower on the glycemic scale; you can feel free to substitute brown or white sugar. This is our first spiced Christmas cookie recipe of the season, and it’s one I know we’ll be making for Christmases to come.
Important: when you’re rolling out the cookies, work quickly to avoid the butter softening, which results in a melted cookie in the oven. We recommend refrigerating half of the dough while rolling out the first half of the cookies.
Almond flour vs almond meal
This chai spice almond snowball cookies are made using almond flour (ground almonds). We like to use almond flour in our naturally gluten free desserts. Some grocery stories carry both almond flour and almond meal.
What’s the difference between almond flour vs almond meal? Both are made from ground almonds. Almond flour is ground finer and made from blanched almonds, which have no skins. Almond meal is coarser ground, and contains the skins of the almonds. Because the texture of these cookies is dependent on the light and fluffy texture of almond flour, make sure to only use almond flour in this recipe.
Since almond flour can be a little pricey, here’s a coupon for $1 any Bob’s Red Mill brand product. Happy Baking!
Looking for Christmas cookie recipes?
Aside from these chai spiced snowball cookies, here are a few of our favorite Christmas cookie recipes:
- Soft Gingerbread Cookies
- Peppermint Meringues
- Ginger Cookie Ice Cream Sandwiches
- The Best Soft Ginger Molasses Cookies
- Shortbread Cookies with Chocolate Drizzle
- Cherry Quinoa Chocolate Bark
- Narwhal Gingerbread Cutout Cookies
- Chewy Pumpkin Oatmeal Cookies
- Healthy Peanut Butter Buckeye Balls
- Gingersnap Sandwich Cookies
- Cranberry Pistachio Chocolate Clusters
- Easy Peppermint Bark
This recipe is…
This Chai Spice Almond Snowball Cookies recipe is gluten free and vegetarian. See the note in the recipe for a vegan variation.
Chai Spice Almond Snowball Cookies
- Prep Time: 1 hour 20 minutes
- Cook Time: 10 minutes
- Total Time: 1 hour 30 minutes
- Yield: 20 1x
Description
These almond snowball cookies are spiced Christmas cookies with a twist: they’re made with almond flour and cozy chai spices!
Ingredients
- ¼ cup butter, at room temperature
- 3 tablespoons coconut sugar (such as Bob’s Red Mill, or substitute white sugar)
- 1 ¼ cup almond flour (such as Bob’s Red Mill)*
- ¼ cup cornstarch
- ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1⁄2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1⁄2 teaspoon ground ginger
- 1⁄2 teaspoon ground cloves
- ½ teaspoon ground cardamom (no substitutions!)
- ⅛ teaspoon salt
- ¼ cup powdered sugar, for dusting
Instructions
- In a stand mixer or with a hand mixer, mix together butter and sugar until fully combined. Add the remainder of the ingredients (except for the powdered sugar) and mix again until a cohesive dough forms. Turn out onto plastic wrap and shape into a ball; refrigerate for at least 1 hour.
- Preheat the oven to 350°F (make sure the temperature is true; adjust if your oven runs hotter than normal). Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
- Roll into approximately 20 1-inch balls, pressing together the dough as necessary where it is crumbly. Important: Work quickly to avoid the butter softening, which results in a melted cookie in the oven. We recommend refrigerating half of the dough while rolling out the first half of the cookies.
- Place the cookies onto the baking sheet and bake for 8 minutes, turning the pan halfway through for even baking, until the cookies are light golden brown but still soft. (Be careful not to over bake or the cookies may start to lose their shape.) Remove the cookies from the oven and cool them on the pan for 10 minutes (avoid touching; the cookies will solidify as they cool). Once hardened, transfer to a rack to cool completely.
- When completely cool, place ¼ cup powdered sugar on a plate and roll each ball in the sugar until coated.
Notes
*Do not substitute almond meal, which is a different product; use only almond flour here! For a vegan variation, use ¼ cup melted, room temperature coconut oil in place of the butter; mix together all ingredients (except powdered sugar) in a bowl with a wooden spoon, then bake at 325°F for 10 minutes. The resulting cookie is not as rich and has a more crumbly texture; you may want to consider adding a bit more sugar in this variation to make up for the lost richness.
- Category: Dessert
- Method: Baked
- Cuisine: American
This post is sponsored by Bob’s Red Mill. All opinions are our own; we’re huge fans of their products and use them often. Thank you for supporting the sponsors who keep A Couple Cooks in action!
Made these as Christmas gifts last year and will do the same this year . YUM YUM
Made these today and LOVE them!! One of my first times baking with almond flour. Everything worked perfectly, and the flavor was delightful. (Love the cardamom!) Will definitely be making these again! I think they’ll be fabulous with a cup of tea. :)
These are delicious! I made them last year at a holiday cooking baking party and it was requested that we make them again this year!
No way! We love hearing that. Tell them all THANK YOU — and thank YOU for making them! :)
I never use corn starch. Could I just substitute with regular flour ? Thank you!
I think that would probably work! We used corn starch to keep it gluten-free. I would go ahead and try that!
Thank you Sonja! (had also sent a request for your vegetable lasagna:-)
Hi,
Thanks for the reply! I did use almond flour but I also used coconut oil instead of butter…Could that have made a difference to the overall texture? ( Kind of like how when baking with butter the temperature and amount of time that you mix it can give you some different textures in your baked goods…?)
Hi,
I loved the look and idea of this cookie. I am still new to baking for GF + Vegan friends but I couldn’t wait to try these out for Christmas. When I made them they turned out very dry and crumbly , like I needed more wet ingredients…when baked they just crumbled in to sand. Do you have any tips or tricks for making these?
I’m sorry to hear the cookies were too crumbly! Did you use almond flour (not almond meal)? Almond meal results in a much more crumbly cookie. Let me know and we can keep troubleshooting!
These look and sound amazing! Did you use salted or unsalted butter? If using salted, should I cut the 1/8tsp salt out?
These look so tasty and healthy. I’m very tempted to try making them. Perfect for Christmas! Thanks for the post. Not to mention, anything with chai is my all time favourite.
I am in love with your photography! These look so tasty, I can’t wait to try them.