For the past few years, our daughter Morgan has made Russian Tea Cakes as Christmas gifts for family and friends. Her Russian Tea Cakes are amazing and full of rich buttery goodness.
Russian Tea Cakes are sort of like round pecan sandies that are rolled in powdered sugar. They are so buttery good, that when our sailor daughter returned home from deployment last December, the thing she was looking forward to the most was home cooked food and Russian Tea Cakes. The main ingredient in Russian Tea Cakes is butter. It is the life of the party and it brings along its fellow party goer – pecans. Actually, my Lenny prefers walnuts. They add a little bit more flavor, but I prefer the mild flavor of the pecans. Our sailor girl? She doesn’t have a preference.
Speaking of the “life of the party”, nothing brings all those flavors together quite like quality vanilla extract. Vanilla extract is an ingredient in so many baked goods, like No Bake Cookies, Chocolate Chip Pumpkin Pudding Cookies or even Cream Puffs. Last summer, I made my very first batch of homemade vanilla extract. When you make homemade vanilla extract, you have to let the beans soak for a long time. Thus, the reason I started making the vanilla extract months before Christmas.
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I ordered my vanilla beans and amber glass bottles online from Amazon and bought my Vodka at my local Kroger store. I haven’t actually shared my vanilla extract recipe on the blog yet, but I will soon. Promise! Now, back to my Russian Tea Cakes…
Russian Tea Cakes actually have different names: Mexican Wedding Cookies, Snowballs and even Butterballs. It really doesn’t matter what you call them, they’re just so full of rich buttery, crispy, melt-in-your-mouth goodness that you can’t eat just one! Wanna know another little secret about Russian Tea Cakes? They’re super easy to make!
Russian Tea Cakes Recipe
After you’ve preheated your oven to 375°, line two cookie sheets with parchment paper. Then you’ll be ready to start mixing your cookie dough. With your butter at room temperature, put the butter in the bowl of your stand mixer bowl or large mixing bowl. I like to mix up the softened butter first, but the recipe actually calls for adding the sugar and vanilla before mixing.
Once you have the butter nice and fluffy, add the powdered sugar, then…
add the vanilla as well to your stand mixer bowl.
Mix well until light and fluffy!
Then I like to place my flour in a large mixing bowl, add the salt and blend before adding to the butter mixture. Once you have your flour and salt mixed well, add to the butter mixture and mix until all ingredients are nicely blended.
You can use whatever nuts you like. Typically I use walnuts or pecans. You’ll just want to chop them up well first or you can buy chopped nuts to make the job a little easier and a little less messy.
Now you’re ready to scoop 1 tablespoon balls of dough and place them on your prepared cookie sheet. You can use a scoop to form your balls or just roll them around in your hand a little bit like I do.
For some reason, I failed to take a picture of the cookies when they came out of the oven. But, once you have your balls on your cookie sheet, you’ll want to bake them for 7-8 minutes or until the bottoms are just slightly brown.
Now for the fun part! While the cookies are still warm (but not too hot that you can’t handle them), fill a bowl with powdered sugar and roll each cookie in the sugar until coated. Place cookies on a rack to cool. Once the cookies are completely cooled, I usually roll them again in powdered sugar.
Now your little Russian Tea Cakes, Mexican Wedding Cookie, Snowballs or whatever you want to call them are ready to eat! Here’s the trick, try to eat just one!
Russian Tea Cakes Recipe
Ingredients
- 1 cup butter softened
- ½ cup powdered sugar
- 1 tspn vanilla
- 2¼ cups flour
- ¼ tspn salt
- ¾ cup finely chopped nuts pecans, walnuts, or almonds
Instructions
- 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 (while the cookies are still warm).
- Place on a rack to cool. (Once cookies are cooled, you may want to roll them in more powdered sugar.)
So, what do you call these cookies? Russian Tea Cakes, Mexican Wedding Cookies or maybe Snowballs? I’d love to know what you call these little delectable balls of buttery, nutty goodness.
Til next time…
P.S. – If you liked this Russian Tea Cakes recipe, you might like these cookie recipes: