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
Natasha Kravchuk
Hi! I'm Natasha Kravchuk. Here you'll find delicious, trusted recipes with easy step-by-step photos and videos. 
I’m just recently into baking and don’t have a hand mixer or food processor. I have a Kitchen-aid mixer. Can I use that? Which mixer attachment – paddle, whisk, or pastry beater? Thanks!!
Hi Janet! I think you could use a whisk attachment.
I always use my Kitchen-Aid. Use the flat beater attachment to cream the butter, powdered sugar and vanilla extract.
I made these cookies and they were totally amazing! Recipe was very easy to follow and the cookies turned out perfect. Wonderful recipe!
Hi Debbie, lovely to hear that! Thank you for your good comments and feedback.
Thank you Natasha for your prompt response. I will definitely follow your advice. Just to let you know, my sister Seeta and I love your recipes. We have tried many of them already. Thank you for putting all of those wonderful recipes out there.
Hello, do you think I can brown the butte? And then follow the recipe with brown butter? 😅 I love that taste but idk if it will be too much
I haven’t tested that to advise, but let us know how it turns out if you experiment.
Hi Natasha,
I tried this recipe last Christmas, and the taste was amazing. However, I don’t know if the baking temperature was set too high. As soon as I put the snowballs in the oven (set at 400), they started to get brown. I had to lower the temperature and watch them. Kindly let me know what I need to do to fix that problem. I want to make the snowballs for Christmas again.
Thank you.
Hi Marie! Every oven bakes differently. I highly encourage the use of an internal oven thermometer and making adjustments as needed. It could have also been the pan, metals/materials distribute heat differently. Also, be sure the oven rack is not too close to the burner. I hope that helps
I only follow your recipes! Your recipes never disappoint. I have several memorized and my family loves them. Thanks
That’s just awesome! Thank you for sharing your wonderful review, Tammy!
Made them multiple times. Very simple and delicious. My daughter loves them too
Great to hear that!
I love these! I used toasted hazelnuts in mine…. so good.😀
Good to know that you love this recipe!
These Russian cookies look amazing definitely going to make them for Christmas thank you
You’re welcome and that’s great!
Hey Natasha,I love this cookies recipe ,I’m making them all the time, but I’m not sure what I’m I doing wrong ,as soon as I put powder on cookies after cooking the butter starts to come out, please help
Hey Natalie, great to hear that you have been enjoying this recipe. I’m not sure why that happens as I have not experienced that before. Maybe others here have experienced that same issue and could share some tips?
Yes this happened to me. I haven’t double dipped in sugar after cooling as well tho. The outside powder sugar is just gooey with the first dip when warm though. Seems like a second dip couldn’t help too much.:/
Hi,
I made these for the first time and it happened to me as well. It’s the sugar melting(kind of) like when you make powdered sugar frosting. Once the second coating is on you can’t see it.
I hope this helps 🙂
Hi! In one recipe, I saw that they used a tablespoon to make each ball. Is one inch the same thing?
Thank you!
It should be close, you’ll have to measure it.
My Nan called these Pecan (pee-can) Balls! Melt-in-your-mouth goodness. Has anyone tried the half whole wheat and half AP flour?
Hi Kate, I have tried half all-purpose and half whole wheat successfully!
When you say you can Freeze them; Are you talking about the raw dough or the baked cookies ?
Hi Mark, we freeze them once they are baked, but both the dough & the baked cookies can be frozen. Also, you can make these up to 3 days in advanyou’reyou like them fresh.
They freeze well; just coat the cookies with more fresh powdered sugar after thawing them. One of my readers mentioned freezing the dough as”ing: “I freeze the raw dough once I form them into balls. Then when I want a few, I bake them. Great for unexpected co”pany.” I hope this helps!
Just made these today and they were quick to make and tender with lovely flavor. Had to shoo the guys out of the room to get the powdered sugar layer on, as they were not wanting to wait. Our thoughts are with you and the people of Ukraine.
Thank you so much for your thoughtful comment, Sherri!
Simple, tasty cookie. Used a vegan butter which may be why my dough was not crumbly like pictured. I added more flour, but it was probably not necessary. I’ll try the recipe again with the stated amount of flour. Made these about half the stated size to test as a Holiday cookie and baked 10 mins.
Thanks for sharing that with us, Sarah. Yes – I recommend trying the recipe as stated, please share with us how it goes on your next try!
Can you provide the weights for the flour, walnuts and sugar please? It is a lot easier to measure ingredients accurately when the weights are provided instead of the measurements.
Hi Allison, If you scroll down to our printable recipe card, most of our recipes have a metric conversion option on the printable recipe card. We are currently working on adding metric measurements to all of our recipes, but it is taking some time to add them one at a time. Thank you so much for being patient! In the meantime, check out our post on measuring which should help.
I made these cookies around Christmas time and they were soooo good! I tried freezing a batch just to see how they would taste after being frozen and I couldn’t tell a difference at all! They tasted just as fresh as the day I made them!
That’s just awesome! Thank you for sharing your wonderful review!
Not a good recipe. There’s too much flour and my family personally didn’t like the taste added from browning the walnuts
I love watching you and have successfully tried many of your recipes but this one was a disaster for me. After I had added just a bit more than half the flour, my mixture was way too crumbly. I had to add more butter so I eventually got the mix to a consistency where I could form them into balls. Not sure what I did wrong…it just seemed like way too much flour.
Hi Linda, Be sure to measure by fluffing the flour first with a spoon then spoon it into a dry ingredient measuring cup and scrape off the top. If you push your measuring cup into a flour bin, you will get up to 25% too much flour. Also, do not tap the flour down in the measuring cup.
Hi Natasha. I love this recipe. They are very good and easy to make. Could you please add
Metric measurement for my sister, she does not have cups
Thank you very much.
Hello Irina, good to hear that you are enjoying my recipes. You can convert the ingredients to grams, just click Metric in the written recipe to do that. I hope that helps.
Trying to find the metric button to click but no luck, any advice on where to find it?