Scrumdiddlyupmptious! Not too sweet, crispy, nutty biscuit-like cookies drenched in icing sugar to make them look like snowballs.

Be warned, these go fast – I usually make double! Lovely with a cup of tea in front of the fire or after dinner with coffee.

Easy enough for young children, although they may need supervising chopping the nuts.

They will keep in a sealed container for about 2 days. Shower with fresh icing sugar before serving.

Prep time 10 mins

Cooking time 30-35 mins

Ingredients

• 130g plain flour
• 130g finely chopped walnuts (or pecans) – don’t be tempted to do this in a blender or you’ll end up with nut dust.
• 150g butter, make sure this is soft. Because there is so much butter in the recipe, you need it well and truly combined. Buttery lumps may affect the structural integrity of your balls (never thought I’d write that down!).
• 3 tbsp caster sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla paste
• Pinch salt
• Icing sugar to dust

Method

1. Mix all your ingredients in a bowl. Use hands to squidge together.
2. Roll mixture into a sausage shape, chill in fridge for about 10 minutes to make it easier to handle, and then divide into about 20 pieces. (You could do this well in advance, wrapping up in a cling film sausage and then cook to serve cookies warm when you need them.)
3. Roll each piece between your palms to make a ball.
4. Place on a greased baking tray. TIP: if using greaseproof paper, crinkle it up first to make it sit flat on the tray.
5. Cook at 140C for 30-35 mins. Don’t be tempted to cook too fast or the balls will spread. Timings may vary as ovens vary but the biscuits shouldn’t be anything than a pale brown colour. It’s a slow cook which helps achieve the incredible ‘shortness’ of the biscuits.
6. Cool for 15 minutes and dust with icing sugar (if you dust too soon the sugar will melt into an unpleasant paste). Re-dust with icing sugar before serving.

Walnut Cheese Biscuits

You can use the same recipe, but cut the sugar down to 1/2 tsp, to make biscuits for cheese. Just roll out the mixture to about 5mm thick, but into shapes of your choosing and bake for 15-20 minutes.