Russian Tea Cakes are tender and buttery on the inside, studded with crunchy walnuts and rolled in powdered sugar. They dissolve in your mouth and you won’t be able to stop at just one.
This is also one of the easiest cookie recipes. We have perfected it over the years. Read on to learn the KEY to making the best Russian Tea Cakes.
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Russian tea cakes are one of our favorite Christmas cookies and a staple of holiday cookie platters, right up there with classic Sugar Cookies. Just like our Almond Snowball Cookies, these look like adorable little snowballs.
What are Russian Tea Cakes?
Russian Tea Cakes are also known as Mexican Wedding Cakes or Snowball Cookies. The cookie dough contains nuts, usually walnuts or pecans which gives the cookies a nutty flavor and slight crunch.
The butter in the cookie dough makes the cookies tender and powdery and they almost dissolve in your mouth. The cookies are rolled in powdered sugar twice to give them a white coating making them look like snowballs.
Ingredients for Russian Tea Cakes
- All-purpose flour – be sure the flour is measured correctly.
- Unsalted butter – softened at room temperature. Gives the cookies a tender crumb. Forgot to soften your butter? See our tip to soften butter in 5 minutes.
- Walnuts – toasting the walnuts until they are golden will give you the best tasting cookies. You can substitute with pecans or even pistachios. Powdered Sugar – also known as confectioners sugar. We add 1/2 cup to the batter and use more to roll the cookies.
- Vanilla Extract – adds flavor. We love homemade vanilla extract for all of our baking.
- Salt – balances the sweetness. Fine sea salt is our salt of choice.
The KEY to the Best Snowball Cookies
Toast the walnuts on a dry skillet over medium heat, tossing frequently for about 5 minutes or until nuts are lightly golden and fragrant then remove to a cutting board to cool and chop the nuts. Whether you are using walnuts or pecans, toasting the nuts will really bring out their best flavor and will make your cookies even better.
Pro Tip: Nuts can burn very quickly on a skillet. Never walk away from your skillet and be sure to toss them frequently. As soon as you can smell the aroma of the nuts, they are done toasting.
How to make Russian Tea Cakes
- Cream together butter, powdered sugar and vanilla until smooth.
- Add flour and salt and mix until combined and no streaks of flour remain. The mixture will be lumpy and not smooth.
- Add walnuts once they are cooled and chopped. Use a firm spatula to mix them in until well distributed in the dough.
- Shape into 1-inch balls (using a small cookie scoop makes portioning easy) and place them on a parchment or Silpat-lined baking sheet, keeping them at least an inch apart. Bake for 12 to 15 minutes, or until the edges are very lightly browned at the base.
- Roll hot cookies in powdered sugar and place on a cookie platter to cool completely to room temperature.
- Roll cooled cookies again in powdered sugar to get an even and generous coating of powdered sugar.
How to tell when Tea Cakes are Done?
These cookies bake up quickly. They are done when the edges of the cookies are lightly golden in color with a golden base.
Make-Ahead
Storing at room temperature – Cookies may be stored up to 1 week in an airtight container.
To freeze Russian tea cakes – store in a freezer-safe lidded container or zip bag and freeze for up to 2 months. Thaw in the refrigerator and enjoy.
Common Questions
You don’t have to use nuts. You can leave them out completely or fill them with a surprise such as a few butterscotch chips (my son’s favorite). If omitting nuts, I suggest adding another 1/4 cup of flour or the cookies will spread in the oven since the nuts help them keep their form.
They are essentially the same thing and the terms are used interchangeably. At Christmas time, they are referred to as snowball cookies.
You can sub with half whole wheat flour if you prefer. It will add flavor and color to the center of the cookies.
More Christmas Cookies and Bars
Christmas baking is a nostalgic activity and a great time to make beautiful food memories. Explore all of our best Christmas Recipes Here and I’m sure you’ll find many new favorite cookies in this list.
- Christmas Sugar Cookies
- Peanut Butter Cookies
- Lemon Bars
- Snickerdoodle Cookies
- Christmas Coconut Balls
- Chocolate Crinkle Cookies
This Tea Cakes recipe was first published in January 2010. It has been updated with new photos and we shared all of our best tips for richer flavor and texture.
Russian Tea Cakes Recipe
Ingredients
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1/2 lb unsalted butter, or 16 tbsp, at room temperature
- 1 cup walnuts, toasted and coarsely chopped
- ½ cup confectioners sugar, powdered sugar, plus 2 cups more for rolling cookies
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- ¼ tsp salt
Instructions
Quick Prep:
- Preheat the oven to 400°F. Line a rimmed baking sheet with parchment or silicone liner.
- Toast nuts on a dry skillet over medium heat for 5 minutes, tossing frequently until fragrant and lightly golden.
How to Make Russian Tea Cakes:
- In a large bowl, using an electric hand mixer, cream together butter, 1/2 cup of powdered sugar, and 1 tsp of vanilla, until smooth.
- Add flour and salt and continue mixing until no streaks of flour remain. The mixture will be lumpy. Use a firm spatula to fold in the nuts until evenly incorporated.
- Use a firm spatula to fold in the chopped nuts until evenly incorporated.
- Shape the dough into 1-inch balls (using a small cookie scoop to portion the dough makes the process easy) and place them on a clean baking sheet at least 1-inch apart. Bake at 400˚F for 12 to 15 minutes, or until the edges are golden at the base.
- Fill a bowl with 1 cup powdered sugar and roll the cookie balls in it while they are still very warm then transfer to a platter to cool completely.
- Once cookies are at room temperature, roll them in more powdered sugar to get perfect little snowballs. Cookies may be stored up to 1 week in an airtight container.
Notes
Nutrition Per Serving
Filed Under
Help! My cookies came out flat and crumbly! I’m at a loss as to what I did wrong. I followed the recipe exactly. I need them for this afternoon and have to try making another batch but am terrified they’ll turn out flat again. Any suggestions? Some have said to chill the dough for an hour first and that might help. I’m so scared they’ll come out flat again!
They shouldn’t be flat unless you used way too much butter. How much butter did you use?
When I made them the first 2 times, mine came out the same way. But today I made them and they turned out just like in the pictures. The only difference was that I left the butter out longer so that it would be really soft and easy to cream in the first step. I think that may make a big difference.
It definitely makes a difference when it’s easier to blend with the other ingredients. 🙂 thanks for sharing your feedback!
Hi Natasha. I love your website! Got a question for you have you tried to freeze the baked balls or how long do you think they will be good in refrigerator for? Thank you.
I haven’t tried to freeze them. I wonder if the powdered sugar will get weird in the fridge. I kept them at room temp. They sit for up to a week in an airtight container, but they are usually eaten long before that!
Ok thank you I’ll just store them in air tight container because I need them for Saturday 🙂
spasibo za rezept,ochen rassypchatoe i vkusnoe pechen”e.pravda,testo ochen rassypalos i ya dobavila 0,5 stick butter.
I’m so glad you liked it 🙂
these were soo good i made these few months back or several and I miss it thank you
Thanks for stopping by and letting me know you enjoyed the recipe. 🙂
Tried these yesterday. They turned out pretty well. I wasnt sure about the outcome as I didnt quite follow the measurements. Here we use European measuring system. At first it was too little butter and the flour was not mixing well. So what I did is to add butter gradually and just mixing until I started seeing that the dough was getting the right consistency. I also made some little changes on the original recipe: I used just all-purpose flour and vanilla powdered sugar.
Still have to pass the final test: giving them to try to my russian bestie!
I really like your website! You do such a good job and I will definitely try more of your recipes!
Thanks Maria 🙂
This recipe is wonderful.. i tried it an followed the exact measurement.. it came out perfect! I was afraid it wont turn out great but i was wrong. I love it and will put it in my treasured recipe collections for my keepings.. will recommend this to all.. thanks natasha.. i never thougt i could bake now with ur hlp.. m becoming to love it! Thnks again
That’s awesome! Way to go! My first baking experiment was actually a little bit of a disaster (good thing I didn’t quit; lol), but I’m glad you had a successful baking experience.
They remind me of Mexican Wedding cookies! Gotta try your recipe! Thank you
You are welcome Iryna 😉
Hi,
Just made your recipe, but subsituted ground hemp seed because I was out of walnuts. They came out great and still had a great nutty flavor. Texture was just the same. Thanks for a great and simple recipe!
J
Where do you buy hemp seed? Is it ok for people with nut allergies?
Amazing 🙂 perfect and fast :)))) Thank u for ur amazing website I use it often!
I made these today,they turned out so good!!Thank you so much for such a great recipe.Keep up the good work;)God bless
Youre welcome and God bless you too 🙂
If I don’t have whole wheat flour, I should still use 1 1/4 cups of all-purpose flour and 1 additional cup of all purpose flour instead of whole wheat flour? so that is a total of 2 1/2 cups of all purpose flour in this recipe? Am i right or I confused everything? lol I want to make them tomorrow and I wasn’t sure.
It would be 2 1/4 cups of all purpose flour. Enjoy! 🙂
So delicious. I made these afew weeks ago. So good. Thank you for sharing this recipe.
So glad you enjoyed the recipe 🙂
i really loooove them! By the way my name is Natasha too. 🙂
Hi Natasha. Nice to meet you! 🙂 I’m glad you liked the tea cakes 🙂
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?
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.
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
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.
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!
i am about to make them!🤩
Please share with us how it goes!
Eto prjaniki ili net? I really mix prjaniki… Never made them.
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!