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These are my Mom’s Famous Russian Tea Cakes! They’re the perfect classic Christmas cookie and we’ve been making them for my entire life. You can make these easy cookies in no time. The most popular name for these are Snowball Cookies but they’re the same recipe and everyone loves them. My mom gets several requests to make them all year long.
What is a Russian Tea Cake?
A classic Christmas Cookie, tea cakes are buttery cookie balls filled with nuts, also called Snowball Cookies. They only have a few ingredients and are rolled in powdered sugar after baking. They’re delicate and practically dissolve in your mouth.
I don’t make a ton of recipes more than once, but I make my mom’s Russian Tea Cake Recipe several times a year. My mom has been making these longer than I’ve been alive. I call them her Famous Russian Tea Cakes because she’s always the one that makes them – and they’re always expected (and requested!) at parties. She makes them for Christmas, for Easter, for every holiday…and just because it’s a Tuesday.
5 Ingredients in Snowball Cookies
There are just a few ingredients in these easy cookies:
- Butter: You can use salted OR unsalted butter (see recipe notes). Make sure it’s softened. Make sure to use REAL butter, the higher quality the better. (I love Challenge Butter best!)
- Powdered Sugar: This makes them nice and delicate.
- Vanilla: Always buy PURE vanilla!
- Salt: Needed if using unsalted butter – omit if using salted butter.
- Flour: Be sure to measure it correctly.
These cookies hold their shape when they bake, because the have no leavening and no egg.
How to make Russian Tea Cakes
- Cream butter and powdered sugar in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment or a large bowl if using a hand mixer.
- Add vanilla extract, salt, and flour and mix until combined. This will take a long time if you’re using a hand mixer – just keep mixing.
- Add chopped pecans or walnuts (or even almonds or pistachios!)
- Scoop 1 tablespoon sized cookie dough balls onto baking sheet lined with parchment paper or silicone mats. Bake until bottoms are light golden.
- Roll cooled cookies in powdered sugar for a snowball look.
FAQs
The best thing about making these cookies (besides eating them) is that they freeze well! My mom and I always freeze these for holidays or just any day you want a cookie. You may just have to re-roll them in powdered sugar once they’re thawed. Other than that you don’t have to do anything special to freeze them.
Traditionally Snowballs are filled with nuts, either pecans, walnuts or almonds. My mom always made them with pecans, so that’s what I use in this recipe.
Yes they freeze great for up to 3 months.
Just keep mixing – this dough is stiff and if you’re using a hand mixer it will take longer to come together than if you’re using a stand mixer. If it’s still crumbly you just need to keep mixing.
They should not flatten at all. Did you make any substitutions? If they flatten you may have not measured the flour correctly or your butter may have been too warm or melted.
Mom’s Russian Tea Cakes Recipe
Recipe Video
Ingredients
- 1 cup (226g) unsalted butter softened
- ½ cup (57 g) powdered sugar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 2 ¼ cups (279 g) all-purpose flour
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- ¾ cup finely chopped nuts pecans, walnuts, or almonds
- Powdered sugar for rolling
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 375°. Line two cookie sheets with parchment paper.
- Mix butter, 1/2 cup powdered sugar, and vanilla with an electric mixer until fluffy. Add flour and salt and mix until the dough comes together. Stir in the nuts. If dough is too soft, chill it until you can work it easily with your hands.
- Scoop 1 tablespoon balls of dough and place on prepared cookie sheet.
- Bake cookies for 7-8 minutes until bottoms are just slightly brown. Remove from oven and cool for just a minute, until you can handle them. Fill a small bowl with powdered sugar and roll each cookie in the sugar until coated.
- Place on a rack to cool. (Once cookies are cooled, you may want to re-roll them in more powdered sugar.)
- You can freeze these cookies or make them up to 4 days ahead of serving.
Recipe Notes
- Omit the nuts and substitute mini chocolate chips
- Omit the nuts and substitute toffee bits
- Omit the nuts and make them plain
- Add 1 teaspoon cinnamon or pumpkin pie spice
- Check out my snowball category for all ideas!
Recipe Nutrition
Other favorite Christmas Cookies:
- Chocolate Chip Cookies
- Shortbread Cookies (4 ways)
- Pumpkin Spice Snickerdoodles
- Cake Mix Crinkle Cookies
- Peanut Butter Blossoms
Easy Russian Tea Cakes are a classic Christmas cookie we’ve been making my whole life. My mom’s recipe is famous in our family! They’re buttery cookies filled with pecans and they’re SO good!
Mmmm, toffee bits sound yummy!. Did you use them in addition to the nuts or in substitution of nuts?
There aren’t toffee bits in these, but you could use them in conjunction with or in place of the nuts!
I just made these, they are still warm from the oven. I don’t have a 1 tablespoon cookie scoop so I used a 1 T measuring spoon, rolled the dough into balls and slightly flattened them into puffy little discs. I was surprised that they went into the oven looking like one bite cookies but came out more like two bite cookies, I didn’t think they would increase in size. Anyhow, they are still cute little discs. I rolled the first 15 in powdered sugar after they had been out of the oven for 2 minutes. I didn’t like how my sugar wasn’t sticking uniformly. So for the next 15 I placed them closely together on a cooling rack and sprinkled the powdered sugar over them through a wire sieve. I realize they are not completely coated in sugar that way but it looks quite pretty. I’ll see what they look like when cooled, how much the sugar has melted and add another dusting if I think they need it. I’m making the cookies to send to my mom and my mother in law for Mother’s Day, along with some other goodies and a few varieties of loose leaf tea from my favorite teashop, David’s Teas. I think the lesser amount of sugar will appeal to the moms. By the way, I used pecans because it’s what I had on hand, already coarsely ground, but I will definitely be trying them with almonds as well. My daughter loves anything almond! The two pecan ones that I tried warm from the oven after rolling in sugar were very delicious! The ingredient list is simple and the dough was so easy to work with. They turned out to be exactly what I wanted for a tea time inspired gift. Thank you for the recipe!
I’m so glad you liked them!!
I made these last night, and they flattened put. Put the remaining dough in the fridge overnight and tried it again today; they flattened out. The dough was chilled, so unless the almonds weren’t ground enough, and/or there need to be an adjustment for high altitude (I’m in Denver), I’m not sure what went wrong!
I have been making these from my Home-
Ec recipe for years and this year the recipe was torn and somewhat illegible (probably got wet). It was so good to find this recipe that matches what I can see of my recipe. Thank you for posting it!
I’m so glad you enjoyed them!! 🙂
I saw a recipe like this one that had caramel bits added. I couldn’t find the caramel bits at my store, so I put in some toffee bits. Big hit! Thanks for these additional ideas.
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