Chocolate Snowball Cookies

The maple season is fully running. First boil of 2022 happened on Tuesday evening, the sugar house warm for the first time since last March, the steam rising into the cold night air in that particular vertical column that means everything is working correctly. I stood at the boiler with a cup of fresh sap and watched the gauge and listened to the hiss and felt the particular contentment that is specific to this place, this work, this time of year.

This is my ninth solo maple season. I've stopped counting them against the ones before Helen died and started counting them as their own sequence, which is the right approach. The ninth of a thing is its own number, with its own character, and this one is running beautifully — the temperature differentials exactly right, the sap coming fast and clear.

Teddy and Sarah are coming for spring break in ten days. I've been thinking about what to show him — not just demonstrate, but actually involve him in the work. The collection routes, the boiling, the grading. He asked on Sunday: can I stay in the sugar house for a boil? I said: yes. He said: like, overnight? I said: I do it regularly. He was quiet for a moment and then said: I'll bring a sleeping bag. He's fourteen and wants to sleep in the sugar house during a maple boil. That's a good sign about who he's becoming.

Made maple candy this week — the soft candy, not the hard kind, poured onto snow in the old way. Ate it standing in the grove in the cold air. Sweet and cold and specific to Vermont in March. You can describe it all you want but you have to eat it in the grove in March to understand it.

The maple candy poured onto snow is its own thing — I won’t pretend you can substitute for it. But when I came back inside from the grove that afternoon, cold through and sugar-happy, I wanted to carry that feeling a little further into the evening. Chocolate Snowball Cookies have that same snow-dusted quality, the powdered sugar coating doing the work the cold air does outside — and they were something Teddy could help roll and coat when he arrived, a small handoff of the season’s particular sweetness. They keep well in the sugar house, which is the only endorsement that matters around here in March.

Prep Time: 15 min | Cook Time: 12 min | Total Time: 1 hr (includes 30 min chill) | Servings: 36 cookies

Ingredients

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
1/2 cup powdered sugar, plus 1 1/2 cups more for rolling
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1/4 tsp salt
1 cup finely chopped walnuts or pecans (optional)

Instructions

Cream butter and sugar. Beat softened butter and 1/2 cup powdered sugar together with a hand mixer or stand mixer on medium speed until light and fluffy, about 2–3 minutes.
Add vanilla. Mix in vanilla extract until just combined.
Add dry ingredients. Sift together flour, cocoa powder, and salt, then add to the butter mixture. Mix on low until a soft dough forms. Fold in chopped nuts if using.
Chill the dough. Cover and refrigerate for 30 minutes. This keeps the cookies from spreading and makes them easier to roll.
Preheat oven. Heat oven to 350°F (175°C). Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.
Shape cookies. Scoop rounded tablespoons of dough and roll into 1-inch balls between your palms. Place about 1 inch apart on the prepared baking sheets.
Bake. Bake for 10–12 minutes, until the cookies are set on the outside and just barely firm to the touch. Do not overbake — they should stay tender inside.
First sugar coat. While cookies are still warm (but cool enough to handle, about 3–4 minutes out of the oven), roll each one gently in powdered sugar to coat. Set on a wire rack.
Second sugar coat. Once cookies have cooled completely, roll them in powdered sugar a second time for a full, snowy coating. Store in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 5 days.

Nutrition (per serving)

Chocolate Snowball Cookies — Sweet and Cold and Specific to This Season