Russian Tea Cakes: A Holiday or Wedding Cookie Recipe

Christmas means sharing with others.  Baked goods are often part of the holiday process.  Our Christmas family baking tradition for gatherings or friends include: below cookies, frosted sugar cookies, thumbprint cookies, two kinds of fudge, some flavor of fruit bread, and trying out at least one new cookie recipe each year.  For other holidays, we tend to stick to pies and cakes for large family or other group gatherings. 

We were given the original recipe for Russian Tea Cakes from an elderly woman on my spouse's work route since he told her how much his family had enjoyed this particular cookie in the Christmas tin she had given him.  We have since seen similar cookies with titles like Snowballs or Pecan Crescents, Mexican Wedding or Italian Wedding Cookies.  It is a fairly time consuming process to make these cookies because you have to watch twice for setting and and end to make sure they do not burn.  We use pecans in ours, you can use whatever nut you prefer. Below is the basic recipe along with the process I have perfected over the years.  

Russian Tea Cakes

Dough Ingredients:

   1 cup butter or oleo/margarine, softened
   3/4 cup confectioners powdered sugar
   1 teaspoon vanilla
   2 & 1/4 cups sifted flour
   1/4 teaspoon salt
   3/4 cup finely chopped nuts 

Additional powdered sugar spread out on a glass or ceramic plate for rolling.

Dough Steps:

1. In large bowl, mix together thoroughly: butter, measured sugar, vanilla.
2. In another bowl, sift together flour and salt.
3. To large bowl, gradually add and stir in sifted ingredients and nuts to form dough,
4. Chill dough so it will be easier to use later.

Baking Steps:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Roll dough into one-inch balls,
3. Place balls approximately 2 & 1/2 inches apart on ungreased baking sheet.
4. Bake until set, but not brown.  Remove from oven and using a spoon (so your fingers do not get burnt)  roll warm balls in additional powdered sugar to coat.
5. Return cookies to oven about 10-12 minutes to finish baking.
6. Remove from oven and roll warm balls in additional powdered sugar to coat again.  Set aside to cool. 
7. Optional:  If cookies are sticky after they are completely cooled, you may roll them in powdered sugar a third time.  This additional coating will prevent them fro sicking together as you place them in a storage container.  

Tip:  If stacking cookies in layers in a holiday tin or storage container, you may want to cut wax paper to size/shape to use between the layers.  A layer of wax paper on the bottom may also make clean-up of the container easier when it is empty.