In a small bowl, combine flour, cocoa powder and sea salt, set aside.
In the bowl of a standing mixer, (or in a large bowl with a handheld mixer) beat butter, ½ cup powdered sugar and vanilla until fluffy (about 1 minute).
Add dry ingredient mixture and beat on low speed. Slowly increase to medium-high speed and beat until the mixture forms large crumbs and easily sticks together when pinched (about 1 minute).
Add chocolate chips and stir until evenly distributed.
Transfer dough to an airtight container and chill for at least 1 hour, or overnight.
Bake
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper.
Remove dough from the refrigerator, measure 1 TBS portions of dough and roll each one into a ball. Should make 15 cookies.
Place the dough balls evenly spaced on the prepared baking sheets about 1” apart.
Bake in the preheated oven for 8-9 minutes, or until the bottoms are lightly browned and tops are set. The dough should not spread, it should remain a ball shape.
Remove cookies from the oven and let cool on the baking pan for 5 minutes.
Roll in Powdered Sugar
Transfer cookies to a wire cooling rack to cool for 10 additional minutes.
After 10 minutes, place powdered sugar in a shallow bowl and coat each cookie in powdered sugar while they are slightly warm, then return them to the cooling rack to cool completely.
Enjoy!
Video
Notes
Ingredient Substitutions
Salted Butter. Unsalted butter or vegan butter are good substitutes for salted butter.
Powdered Sugar. If you'd like to make your own powdered sugar with coconut sugar, try this paleo powdered sugar.
Cocoa Powder. For a darker variety use dark cocoa powder.
All-purpose flour. I recommend using an unbleached, all-purpose flour to make these chocolate snowball cookies! You can use a 1:1 all-purpose gluten-free baking flour for a gluten-free version.
Mini chocolate chips. I prefer mini chips because then you get bursts of chocolate in every bite, however you can use regular chocolate chips or chopped chocolate.
Store/Freeze Baked CookiesStore any baked chocolate snowball cookies in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 5 days, or in the freezer for up to 2 months.Freeze the Dough
Portion out the dough and roll it into balls.
Then place the rolled dough balls on a baking sheet and flash-freeze them until hardened.
Once hardened, transfer the dough balls to an airtight container until you're ready to bake.
To bake: remove the dough from the freezer and let it thaw in the refrigerator overnight or at room temperature for 2 hours before baking according to the recipe instructions.