Grinch Snowball Cookies

Ingredients

• 1 cup unsalted butter (softened)
• 1/2 cup powdered sugar (plus more for rolling)
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 2 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/4 teaspoon fine sea salt (if using Roasted & Salted Pistachios, omit the salt)
• green gel food coloring (optional)
• 3/4 cup finely chopped pistachios
• 1/3 cup chopped, dried cranberries

Instructions

• Heat oven to 400 degrees.
• In a large bowl, beat together butter, sugar, and vanilla.
• Add flour, salt, and food coloring {if using}.
• Mix in chopped pistachios until dough holds together.
• Stir in the chopped cranberries.
• Shape dough into 1 inch balls and place on ungreased or parchment paper lined baking sheets. These cookie do not spread, so you can put them closer together on your baking sheets…but I still end up using 3 pans.
• Bake for 10 – 12 minutes or until set but not brown.
• Remove from pan and roll in powdered sugar. Yes, you will burn your fingertips a bit when rolling the hot out of the oven cookies in powdered sugar…but it is worth it. The sugar melts onto the cookies and make the glue that hold the second coating on and gives them their awesome, snowy appearance.
• Placing the coated cookies on a wire rack keeps the bottoms from sticking and allows them to cool faster…so you can eat them faster! Let cool completely.
• Roll cookies in powdered sugar one more time to thoroughly coat.

ORIGNAL recipe: Cooking with Curls