– Submitted by Maddie Eakman
When my mom was growing up in Spencer, Iowa, there was a woman in her neighborhood who she fondly called the Cookie Lady. Every Christmas, the Cookie Lady would share treats called Snowstorms, named for their powdered sugar exterior that resembled fallen snow.
Decades later and multiple time zones away, my mom still thought about the Cookie Lady and Snowstorms from time to time, so when I started baking as a hobby one of her first requests was to try to replicate them. After many attempts, I knew from my mom’s tears of nostalgia that I finally got it right, and ever since then we have made at least one batch of Snowstorms every holiday season and shared many more.
Soft, perfectly chocolaty but not too sweet, one bite and you’ll see why we can never bake enough of these at Christmas.
Recipe
Cookie:
1 pound (452g) butter*, softened
396g white sugar
320g dark brown sugar
4 tsp vanilla
4 eggs*
1 pint (453g) small curd cottage cheese*
84g cocoa
1 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
2 tsp baking powder
660g flour*
226g chopped walnuts
Powdered sugar, for rolling
Method
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Grease cookie sheet(s) with parchment paper or a Silpat.
- Cream the butter and sugars together. Add the vanilla, mix well.
- Add the remaining ingredients except the powdered sugar and mix well. There will be visible cottage cheese curds.
- Roll in balls the size of walnuts (a small cookie scoop works well for this, dough is sticky), then roll each ball in powdered sugar.
- Bake at 350 degrees for 10 to 12 minutes.
Recipe notes:
*For my entry I will be using eggs from Stiebrs Farms in Yelm, WA, butter from Lulubelle’s Creamery based in Tualatin, OR, Nancy’s cottage cheese based in Eugene, OR, and Fairhaven Mill All Purpose white flour.
Feel free to halve the recipe; this recipe makes several dozen cookies
