Russian tea cakes.

These cookies are perfect around Christmas, well they're perfect anytime because they are so good! They just remind me of Christmas, maybe the powdered sugar looks like a dusting of snow? I dunno, just make these cookies asap, they are so easy to make and delicious. You can use pecans or walnuts, I like to use walnuts for their oil content when baked they just make the cookie taste more buttery and light. These can also be called Mexican wedding cakes, just add 1-2 teaspoons of cinnamon, either way, they're wonderful. This recipe makes 2-3 dozen, depending on how big you make your cookies, I made about 24 cookies.




1 cup butter, at room temperature
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/2 cup sifted confectioners’ (powdered sugar) sugar, plus more for rolling cookies
2 cups flour
1/4 teaspoon salt1 cup finely chopped pecans or walnuts

Preheat oven to 325 degrees F.

Cream butter in a large mixing bowl or stand mixer fitted with beater attachment, add vanilla and gradually add the 1/2 cup of confectioners sugar.Beat until light and fluffy.
Sift the flour with the salt and add gradually to the butter/sugar mixture, add the pecans or walnuts and mix well.

Shape the dough into 1-2 inch balls or crescent shapes ( did the crescents by rolling into a cylinder form back in fourth in my hands and shaping into a crescent) and place on parchment lined baking sheet spacing 1-2 inches apart. Bake 20 minutes or until edges are lightly browned. remove the cookies and dust or roll with confectioners sugar in a medium bowl, while still warm. Be sure to cover the while cookie in the confectioners sugar. Cool on wire racks, roll or dust cookies in Confectioners sugar before serving. Once completely cooled, cookies can be stored in an airtight container for up to 1 week.


Recipe adapted from http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/emeril-lagasse/russian-tea-cakes-recipe/index.html