Snowball Cookies for the Trail
A butter-and-pecan cookie baked at home, sugared twice, and carried in a hard-sided box.
- calories
- 340
- weight
- 2.2 oz
- cal / oz
- 155
- protein
- 3 g
- serves
- 8, scales
- prep
- 90 min
- cook
- 0 min
- total time
- 90 min
- water
- none
- cost
- $$
Calorie and protein figures are my own estimates, good enough for planning a food bag and not meant as precise nutrition data.
- Snack
- Dessert
- No cook
- Backpacking
- Day hike
- Car camping
- Winter / snow
- Vegetarian
- Eat in the bag
- Grab and go
- Shelf stable
- Actual cooking
Ingredients
| Pecans | 1 cup | toasted, then chopped rough |
|---|---|---|
| Unsalted butter | 1 cup | softened, not melted |
| Powdered sugar | 1 1/2 cups | 1/2 cup in the dough, the rest for rolling |
| Vanilla extract | 1 tsp | |
| Almond extract | 1/2 tsp | |
| All purpose flour | 2 1/4 cups | |
| Fine salt | 1/2 tsp |
Method
- At home: toast the pecans in a dry skillet over medium heat until they smell like pecans, about five minutes. Move them off the heat before they look done or they will finish darkening in the pan.
- Cool the nuts, chop them, and set them aside. Beat the butter until it lightens, then beat in 1/2 cup of the powdered sugar and both extracts.
- Stir in the flour, salt, and pecans. The dough will be dry and crumbly. That is what you want.
- Cover and chill one hour. Roll into 1-inch balls, space them two inches apart on a lined sheet, and bake at 350F for 12 to 14 minutes, until the bottoms just color. They barely spread.
- Rest fifteen minutes, then roll each cookie in the remaining powdered sugar. Cool completely and roll a second time.
- At camp: open the box. No stove, no water, no pot.
There is no fresh dairy here and no egg, which is why a home-baked cookie makes it onto a packing list at all. Butter in a baked cookie is stable at ambient temperature for a week, and the dough is dry enough that nothing inside stays wet long enough to spoil. Two to three days is comfortable in summer, a week in cold weather.
The powdered sugar is structural, not decoration. It carries no moisture, so it seals the surface, and the double coat gives you something to lose to the bottom of the container without ruining the cookie. In real heat the coat will go tacky and gray. Roll them at camp instead, or accept it.
Nothing about this recipe is adapted for cooking on the trail, because it is not cooked on the trail. Bake at home, carry the result, and treat the container like the fragile thing it is.
Packing
These break if you look at them wrong. A rigid container or a cut-down plastic jar, not a freezer bag. Pack the second sugar coat in a small bag and roll them at camp if you want them to arrive looking like cookies.
Variations
- Walnuts or almonds work in place of pecans, one for one.
- Skip the nuts and add 1/3 cup more flour, or the dough will not hold together.
- A tablespoon of cocoa powder in the dough cuts the sweetness without adding weight.
https://www.tasteandtellblog.com/mexican-wedding-cookies-snowball-cookies