Russian Tea Cakes are a popular treat. I even saw a knock off (boxed version) at costco this year. Why buy them when they are simple to make and nothing beats fresh, real ingredients. These almost always appear at our church banquets. There are slight variations of the recipe. I like to add more walnuts and sub half the flour with whole wheat. Hope you enjoy them. You will likely make them more than once!
Cost to Make: $3 to $5
Servings: Makes approximately 40 cookies
Ingredients for Russian Tea Cakes:
1 ¼ cups all-purpose flour
1 cup whole wheat flour (use all-purpose if you don’t have wheat).
2 sticks butter (1/2 pound butter or 16 tbsp) at room temperature
1 cup walnuts, coarsely chopped
½ cup confectioners (powdered) sugar, plus more for rolling cookies
1 teaspoon vanilla
¼ teaspoon salt
How to make Russian Tea Cakes:
Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.
If using a stand mixer, use the paddle attachment on low/medium speed
1. In a large bowl, cream the butter, powdered sugar and vanilla, until smooth.
2. Gradually mix in the flour and salt.
3. Use a spoon to mix in walnuts until well distributed.
4. Shape the dough into 1-inch balls and place them on an ungreased baking sheet 2 inches apart.
5. Bake 10 to 12 minutes, or until the edges are very lightly browned.
6. Fill a bowl with powdered sugar and Roll the balls in it while they are still warm.
8. Once cookies are at room temperature, roll them in powdered sugar again to get perfect little snowballs.
Cookies may be stored up to 1 week in an airtight container.
Serve with Tea. Duh.
{ 12 comments… read them below or add one }
I’ve made them but it was Robin McGraw’s recipe and it called for margarine, which I think made it sub-par. I think this recipe sounds much better–real butter is always better!
Eto prjaniki ili net? I really mix prjaniki… Never made them.
I mean I really “miss” them.
These arent Pryaniki. They are more like cookies. But my mom makes some really really good pryaniki and frosts them with a mint glaze….mmmm. I haven’t learned to make them, but I definitely want to and will post them as soon as I do. Thanks for the idea!
Natasha: I tried to make them today and something went wrong. The recipe asks for 2 sticks of butter. I am confused of what kind of sticks, you now some butter package comes with 4 sticks of butter.. Some packages have sticks that are long… So when i used the 2 sticks it seemed like i needed more butter for the flour was not mixing…. Also, when i put them in the oven, they flatten. Are the cookies supposed to flatten like that… Again i am thinking i must’ve used too much butter. Can you please let me know.
I checked the recipe to my original and it looks right. Its two regular sticks of butter. I believe it is equivalent to 1 cup of butter. Were they softened to room temp?When they are too firm, it doesn’t mix well. Also, are you sure you didn’t add more than 2 1/4 cups of flour total? They should flatten just a little bit on the bottom but not fall apart. And they stay pretty round (see picture) I’m sorry it didn’t work out for you. I’m not sure what else could have happened. Hope that helps.
hmmmmm… i think i might have put too much butter then, because when i saw that it doesnt mix well with the flour, i put two more sticks and thats why they flattened and fell apart when i picked them up.. oh, and the butter was not softened, probably thats why didnt mix… i will try again.. Thanks for replying back..
Your welcome. Man, all that work and you didn’t even get to enjoy them
Well, I hope you give them another shot because they are very tasty
Just made these little cookies, so simple and fast but very yummy. Didn’t have walnuts so I substituted with pecans and added lemon zest. Simply delicious! thanks
Pecans and lemon zest sound nice. I’ll have to try that.
As i was making these, did i only then realize these are just about the same cookies as we make in our family circle. Only thing different is instead of walnuts, we toast almonds and instead of powdered sugar by itself, we mix it with special dark cocoa. We call them cocoa balls
yum…:)
That sounds great! How much cocoa do you add?
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