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Ingredients
- 1 cup butter, softened
- 1/2 cup powdered sugar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 2 1/4 cups flour
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 3/4 cup finely chopped nuts (pecans, walnuts, or almonds)
- Powdered sugar for rolling
Preparation
Step 1
My mom has been making these longer than I’ve been alive. I call them her Famous Russian Tea Cakes because she’s always the one that makes them – and they’re always expected (and requested!) at parties. She makes them for Christmas, for Easter, for every holiday…and just because it’s a Tuesday.
to make them evenly sized. You have a cookie scoop, right? If not, add it to your Christmas list. Santa needs to bring you one! (I have three: 1 tablespoon, 2 tablespoon, and 1/4 cup. You should ask for all of them!)
My mom loves to make these more bite sized. She uses her cookie scoop, then cuts each cookie in half. You get double the cookies and they’re perfect for a one-bite treat. No powdered sugar or crumbly mess anywhere. Great with kids.
Preaheat oven to 375°. Line two cookie sheets with parchment paper.
Mix butter, ½ cup powdered sugar, and vanilla with an electric mixer until fluffy. Add flour and salt and mix until the dough comes together. Stir in the nuts. If dough is too soft, chill it until you can work it easily with your hands.
Scoop 1 tablespoon balls of dough and place on prepared cookie sheet.
Bake cookies for 7-8 minutes until bottoms are just slightly brown. Remove from oven and cool for just a minute, until you can handle them. Fill a small bowl with powdered sugar and roll each cookie in the sugar until coated. Place on a rack to cool. (Once cookies are cooled, you may want to re-roll them in more powdered sugar.)
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Yummy these look delicious. I’ve yet to make cookies for my Christmas baking, so I want to make these!
Russian Tea Cakes are My Mom’s famous cookies too! In fact, it is about time for her to make a batch! These look perfect
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Oh yes! Way too many! I’ll never make everything I’ve pinned. Not if I had a thousand years!
I grew up eating these too but we called them Russian Tea Cookies. I didn’t like them with nuts, so my mom made some with and some without nuts. Brings back a lot of good memories and will definitely make them this Christmas. Thanks.
Moms do make everything best! I’ve learned to stop trying to come up to the standard of Michael’s mom lol.
Have you tried these at all with gluten-free flour? I am looking at using a gluten-free flour mix from a box. I recently went gluten-free and it’s hard to find cookie recipes that don’t have flour in them.
I love these cookies. They make me think so much of my childhood. We called them Mexican wedding cookies but the result is still the same. So tasty!
This cookie needs to show up in my mothers kitchen every year for Christmas otherwise it just doesn’t seem right! We call them snowballs or more commonly, “those cookies mom makes every year.” Love these!
Girl, these cookies rock! i’ll try them tomorrow and make them for my son’s 3rd birthday on sunday. Thanks for sharing!
These are one of my favorite cookies to make each year too…except I don’t ever use nuts in mine or roll them in powdered sugar. Powdered sugar everywhere doesn’t sound like fun with kids…although I like your mom’s idea to cut them in half so you can just pop them!
These look so good, my mom always makes Shortbread-that is what she is famous for!! And scones
I took home economics in middle school – we never made anything fun and had to sew these ugly locker caddies
Nothing better for buttery richness than a little round shortbread ball, no matter what nationality (Russian, Mexican, Greek…) As Jocelyn mentioned, these are delicious without nuts too. (I can’t really compare because I can’t eat nuts. I just make up the difference with more flour. ) I can’t imagine them without powdered sugar though. I don’t mind a little powdered sugar mess when it provides such yumminess.:)
I agree! Everything my mom makes is better! I always called these Mexican Wedding Cookies. It’s funny how one cookie can have so many different names! I even made them for a college Spanish class for a speech I was doing on wedding traditions! I may have to add these to my Christmas baking this year!
Jessica @ A Kitchen Addiction
Jessica @ A Kitchen Addiction recently posted..
Dorothy, these are my mom’s favorites too, only I have to make them and they have to have walnuts and we call them snowballs! And when I make her batch this weekend, I am totally taking some of the dough and stuffing mini Reese’s inside like the recipe you linked here. That might be my new favorite cookie!
) I remember sewing a pillow too — shaped like two peas in a pod — but we didn’t make sloppy joes. We baked a chocolate cake with fudgy frosting instead!
I’ve frozen them! I place them between paper towels, and then let them defrost still between the towels to absorb moisture. And yes, they may need another roll in sugar. But they’ll be awesome!
I just made these and they are great – just like my mom used to make! I was concerned that the dough was too crumbly but it was fine. I also did the “Double Roll” with the powdered sugar and they came out perfectly. The recipe is definitely a keeper
I love this recipe from Russian Tea Cakes to Wedding cookies yo Snowballs they all seem to have the same ingredients. Last year I decided to change things up a little. I made a double batch then split the dough three ways. One third of the dough stayed plain the second third of the dough I added a few drops of red food coloring and the last third I added a few of green food coloring. Following the recipe except for the coloring. Rolling into balls. When done you will have some red green and plain white balls you can even add candy sprinkles to the dough for more color. Making your cookie tray or presentation bright and shiny.
Quick question, please. All purpose or self- rising flour? I thought since the addition of salt, it would all purpose. Just want to be sure since these are gifts. Thank you and can’t wait to try them! My favorite cookie as a child was Mexican Wedding Cookies. Can still remember getting them with my Mom.
Ok. Let me start by saying Russian Teacakes are my FAVORITE cookie. Let me also say that I bake a lot. However, I have never successfully made these. My aunt always makes them. When I have attempted them they came out crumbly and very disappointing. My aunt and uncle retired to Kansas. So I knew if I wanted Russian teacakes, I would have to make them myself. When I saw your post I thought I’d give your recipe a try instead of Gramma’s. I have to say they are Perfect! !!!! Thank you so much for sharing!
I was so excited to be eating Russian cookies, and then they are just American? Bummer. Anyways, I love these types of buttery and powdery cookies, so I’m definitely going to make these. For tea. Because I’ve been needing an excuse to have a tea party with friends. And once I’ve fed them cookies, they probably won’t complain that tea parties are meant for little girls.
[…] made some salted caramel brownies (recipe is a bit of a mess, I’ll write it down one day) and Russian Tea Cookies (but I added a little cinnamon in with the powdered sugar to roll around in after they come out of […]
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