Russian tea cakes, Mexican wedding cookies, snowball cookies, pecan balls… these nutty, melt-in-your mouth cookies go by a number of different names and I’m sure you’ve tried them at one point under one moniker or another. They’re extraordinarily similar to my pecan sandies and even closer to my chocolate chip snowball cookies (only we’re swapping the chocolate out for nuts!). Russian tea cakes (or whatever you call them!) are popular across the globe and a popular Christmastime treat, so I felt it was timely to share them now. They have a sweetness that’s more subtle than many of my other recipes, so the powdered sugar exterior is absolutely mandatory (and those of you who think I’m too heavy-handed on the sugar will appreciate this one 😉). The exteriors are crisp, but give way to soft, melting centers (just don’t over-bake them or they’ll crumble!).

What You Need for Russian Tea Cakes

I just have a few notes on a few of the ingredients…

Butter. As with most of my cookie recipes, we use unsalted butter and then add salt to taste. This gives us maximum control over the flavor of our Russian tea cakes. Powdered sugar. This is the only sugar we’ll be using in this recipe (no granulated or brown sugar here!). It gives the cookies a crisp exterior but a melt-in-your-mouth interior. Cornstarch. The cornstarch isn’t mandatory (good thing since I evidently thought it was optional to include it in the above photo 🤦🏼‍♀️) but it reduces the chance of spreading and gives the cookies even more of that melt-in-your-mouth quality I keep talking about. There’s already cornstarch in the recipe (powdered sugar is made with cornstarch) but we’re bumping up the ratio just a bit here for an even better texture. Nuts. Walnuts, pecans, or almonds are all popular choices that will work well here. Hazelnuts or even pistachios would also work. I used pecans in the video and have no regrets about that whatsoever.

You’ll notice that there is no egg in this recipe. That is not a mistake, so for those of you who have been asking me for an eggless cookie recipe, you’ll appreciate this one! This is just an overview of the ingredients I used and why. For the full recipe please scroll down to the bottom of the post!

How to Make Russian Tea Cakes

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Enjoy! Let’s bake together! Make sure to check out the how-to VIDEO in the recipe card! 

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