A couple of years ago, Nestle released some limited edition chocolate chips for the holidays called Tollhouse Swirled Holiday Morsels. They were white chocolate chips that had been swirled with bright streaks of green and red. Saying that they were festive was an understatement, and they added a great Christmas flare to any batch of cookies you put them into.
One of the most popular recipes using these swirled chips was for Swirled Holiday Snowball Cookies, which were ultra-tender cookies that had a bright holiday look to them thanks to the chips. Since that recipe was so popular, but you can’t get the chips anymore, I decided to work some red and green into the recipe in a different way so you can enjoy the festive (and very tasty) cookies whether you can find special swirled chips or not.
I mixed a lot of red and green sprinkles into the cookie dough to infuse them with Christmas colors. Sprinkles, unlike colored sugars, hold their shape when baking and don’t lose any of their color while they’re in the oven. You can’t taste them in the finished cookies, but you get a lot of color. The cookie dough is made with plenty of butter and some ground walnuts, which enhance the cookies buttery flavor. They’re not too sweet on their own, but vanilla-flavored white chocolate chips lend plenty of sweetness to the finished cookies, and you end up with a flavorful and festive melt-in-your-mouth cookie.
Holiday Snowball Cookies
1 1/2 cups butter, room temperature
3/4 cup confectioners’ sugar
2 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 tsp salt
3 cups all purpose flour
1/2 cup finely ground walnuts (or pecans)
10-oz (1 2/3 cups) white chocolate chips
3 tbsp red and green sprinkles
extra confectioners’ sugar, for dusting
Preheat oven to 375F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
In a large bowl, beat together butter, sugar, vanilla and salt until smooth and creamy. Gradually incorporate the flour and ground walnuts, mixing until no streaks of dry ingredients remain. Add in white chocolate chips and red and green sprinkles and mix until well-distributed.
Shape dough into 1-inch balls and place on prepared baking sheet.
Bake for 10-12 minutes, until the edges of the cookies are very lightly browned.
Dust with additional confectioners’ sugar while cookies are still hot, if desired.
Cool completely on a wire rack before storing.
Makes 3 1/2-4 dozen
Gabby
December 14, 2010what an interesting take on snowball cookies.
Cheryl
December 14, 2010Those sound and look amazing – I love the added color!
x3baking
December 14, 2010I love the colors! What a beautiful cookie. I never even knew those chocolate chip swirls existed, I’m sad that they were discontinued though.
Jacy Richardson
December 14, 2010These look very cute! It would be fun to make them suitable for other holidays using different sprinkle colours.
Judy
December 14, 2010These are great for Christmas and thanks for sharing the use of sprinkles!
millys mini kitchen
December 15, 2010wonderful! saving this recipe to make soon
AC
December 15, 2010I baked a batch of these cookies today. They are so good! Thanks for the recipe!
Kim
December 16, 2010The Holiday Snowball Cookies are among my favorite cookies for the holidays! I was SO sad to find out that the red/green swirled morsels have been discontinued … but happy to find this recipe which incorporates red & green sprinkles to make the cookies look just as festive! Thanks for sharing!
toni
December 16, 2010thank you for the recipe, used to make when they made the swirls and was sad when couldn’t find anymore
Diane
December 19, 2010OH NO! My favorite cookie. I froze one leftover bag from last year, I doubled the batch then went to buy one more bag of swirled chips only to find that they have been discontinued. BRING THEM BACK.
Kathy
July 4, 2011What a great idea! Here it is – Independence Day – and while going through my recipe box for a recipe to celebrate the day, I found my recipe card for Swirled Holiday Snowball Cookies. For the past two years, I’ve looked everywhere for those holiday swirled chips. Those cookies are delicious, and the red and green chips looks so festive. I will use your idea this Christmas! Wouldn’t it be wonderful if they released chips with red and blue stripes! In fact, maybe I’ll use your idea today with red and blue sprinkles! Happy 4th of July! 🙂
Kathy Stroup
November 6, 2011I also loved the holiday red and green swirled chips. So last year I could not find the red and green chips so I used the dark choc. and mint chips. Very very good. The mint is very light and dark choc. is great.
Kathy Stroup
November 6, 2011I love the swirled holiday snowball. Last year when I could not find the red and green morcels. I thought what to do. So I decided to try the Dark choc. and Mint morsels. They were very very good. Mint is very light and dark choc. delicious. I like the red and green sprinkles idea maybe I’ll try that.
KARI
December 1, 2012I made these years ago and have been searching for the recipe ever since! Thanks so much! I’ll add these to my holiday baking!
amy
December 17, 2012Wow! Thank you been wanting to make these again and didn’t know how to get the color into it what a good idea.
roni
December 21, 2014I found the striped chips t Aldi’s if you want to mke them ..they still have them in stores. 2014