These Russian tea cakes may not be Russian, but at least they aren’t cakes, goes the old joke. Nobody is precisely sure how these got to be known as Russian tea cakes, but they are very tasty.
| Prep Time: | 15 mins |
| Cook Time: | 15 mins |
| Additional Time: | 5 mins |
| Total Time: | 35 mins |
| Servings: | 14 |
| Yield: | 28 to 32 cookies |
Ingredients
- 1 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
- 1 cup finely chopped toasted walnuts
- ⅓ cup confectioners’ sugar, packed
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- ⅛ teaspoon salt
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
- 1 cup confectioners’ sugar for dusting, or more as needed
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Arrange a rack in the center position of the oven. Line a rimmed baking sheet with a silicone mat.
- Place butter, walnuts, 1/3 cup packed powdered sugar, vanilla, and salt in a large bowl. Top with 2 cups plus 2 tablespoons flour. Mix with clean hands until dough starts to clump up. Keep mixing by hand until all flour and clumps of butter are evenly mixed into dough.
- Scoop out dough and roll by hand into uniformly round balls, just slightly larger than 1 inch. Place about 2 inches apart on the prepared baking sheet.
- Bake in the preheated oven until lightly golden, 15 to 25 minutes depending on the size of cookies.
- Let cool for exactly 5 minutes, then roll warm cookies in 1 cup confectioners’ sugar in a medium bowl. Let cookies cool completely, then toss them again in confectioners’ sugar.
- The only tricky thing here is the baking time since there are so many variables: the size of the dough balls, whether you use a silicone mat or parchment, how light or dark the sheet pan is, etc. These factors can all affect the final time significantly.
- This cookie tends to get undercooked. Some recipes call for as little as 12 minutes at 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). I like these fairly golden, so I get that nice brown-butter flavor. It took me about 20 minutes or so, which is why I gave such a wide range. Start checking at 15 minutes, and proceed from there.
Nutrition Facts
| Calories | 276 kcal |
| Carbohydrate | 26 g |
| Cholesterol | 35 mg |
| Dietary Fiber | 1 g |
| Protein | 3 g |
| Saturated Fat | 9 g |
| Sodium | 22 mg |
| Sugars | 11 g |
| Fat | 18 g |
| Unsaturated Fat | 0 g |
Reviews
Delicious and impressive cookies! The texture turned out perfectly and despite how they looked after the first roll in sugar, I pressed on as Chef John said and they ended up beautiful. They were the perfect addition to my Christmas cookie gift box. I will definitely be making these again. Thanks, Chef John!
I added 1/4 cup more nuts. I used salted butter. Suggest cooking no more than 15 minutes. These were yummy. Getting goop of my hands was a chore. 2nd batch I did 3/4 with spatula then final mix with hands.
It’s so delicious my little girl love it.. And she’s always say mmmm everytime thanks…
The Gluten free version worked. I made these with King Arthur Gluten Free Flour 1:1 and they were delicious. I also used salted butter (sorry CJ) and omitted salt. The only big change for gluten free is that you have to cool them almost completely before the sugar or they fall apart and you’ll be tossing them all broken into your mouth because they’re amazing but more like granola than cookies.
Yummy! Just like I remembered from when I was young!!!!!
Definitely 5 stars. My mom made these at Christmastime when I was growing up. These are so delicious and so easy! I baked mine as directed for about 17 minutes and then let them sit on the pan for a few before coating in powdered sugar. Otherwise they crumbled apart.
Bake 18 minutes.
Made a double batch and followed the recipe exactly without issue. This was the best and most delicious recipe I’ve ever tasted for these cookies and they are one of my favorites. I suspect Chef John’s suggestion to toast the walnuts takes it to the next level. This will be my go to from now on!
the recipe is amazing and so easy. Thx Chef John!
These were very nice cookies!! I found that you only really need to coat it one time with powdered sugar. It was a bit dry so now I’m realizing why it is called Russian “TEA” cakes or they also pair well with coffee.
I loved them, the cookies are the best!
These cookies are a smash with guests. I didn’t change the recipe, although other nuts would work. Walnuts are best. Thanks so much.
I made this recipe following directions exactly. The Russian Tea Cakes turned out as stated. They were so dry. The taste was so bland it was like a dry round ball of flavorless flour that was over baked. ( This is what the tea cake tasted like to me and my family ) I took the other 35 little morsels to work with me for my co-workers opinions. They each tasted them and three of my co-workers loved them and asked for the recipe. Others liked them and munched on them. I only had a couple co-workers who felt like I did. So that being said, I think it is actually — to each his own. I wouldn’t remake these just because of our taste.
We did two batches. One was significantly over cooked (20 min), the next was slightly over-cooked (15 min). I’m not a baker at all, so I think we just had a tough time looking at the cookies and being able to tell if they were done or not.
I followed the recipe here. SOOOOOOO much easier using your hands to mix. I have burned out 2 mixers over the years on making these. I love the dump and mix method. I wore gloves so I wouldn’t get the dough in my nails – worked perfectly. As for “packing” the powdered sugar Who knew??? I’ve always measured it out like flour, but packing worked just fine. I used my smallest scoop to make the little dough balls before rolling them to round them out in my hands. I did toast my pecans beforehand. Yum! I also baked the cookies longer as Chef John suggests. In my oven, I baked for 18 minutes. These came out perfect and my husband and friends raved. The texture and flavor is wonderful. Enjoy!
So easy and sooooo good! For someone who’s not a baker, this recipe was fun and came out like shown!! Thanks.
Just AMAZING!! I make them Faithfully EVERY Christmas!! 11yrs running!!
I didn’t make any changes to the recipe and it was delicious. I’m about to make them again. They were surprisingly easy.
I will be making it every year. I substituted the nut with one half pecans. YUMMY!
I LOVE Russian teacakes, so Russian teacakes + Chef John, sounds like a winner. Nope, these lacked flavor and were pretty dry despite being slightly brown on the bottom. I think the lack of flavor can be blamed on the unsalted butter. The other recipe I typically use is very similar to this and uses salted butter.
I made the recipe exactly as stated. They turned out great. Looked pretty. Added them to the goodie bags I gave to the neighbors and my my mailman. They enjoyed them. They were gone in no time.