Mocha Nut Butter Balls

Mocha nut butter balls are the holiday cookie tin essential nobody tells you about. They’re a riff on Russian tea cakes or Mexican wedding cookies, but with cocoa and instant coffee folded into the dough. The result is a tender, almost sandy crumb that melts on the tongue with deep mocha flavor and a sweet sugar coating.

The trick with any snowball cookie is the high ratio of butter and nuts to flour. There’s no egg here, no leavener, just butter holding everything together. That means your butter needs to be properly soft, not melted. If it’s too warm the cookies spread; too cold and they crumble apart.

Use instant espresso powder if you can find it instead of standard instant coffee. The flavor concentration is higher and it dissolves more cleanly into the dough.

Roll the cookies in sugar while still warm. The residual heat helps the granules cling. Once they’re cool, the sugar slides right off.

Pro Tips

• Toast the walnuts or pecans for five minutes in the oven before chopping. Raw nuts taste flat against the cocoa.
• Chop nuts finely but not to dust. Some texture is what gives these cookies their character.
• Bake just until the cookies are set on the surface. Overbaking dries them out and ruins the melt-in-mouth quality.
• Store in a tin between layers of parchment for up to two weeks. The flavor actually improves overnight.

Variations

• Roll cooled cookies in powdered sugar instead of granulated for a snowier finish.
• Swap half the cocoa for finely grated dark chocolate and a pinch of cinnamon.
• Add a teaspoon of orange zest for an orange-mocha twist.