Russian tea balls: Twelve Days of Christmas Cookies

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Welcome to our Twelve Days of Christmas Cookies link up! For the next two weeks, join us every day and add your favorite cookie recipe for that day’s theme. Please follow Lisa and Lindsay and check out some new blogs! Happy baking!

Day 3 features our favorite nut recipes. Some people call them Mexican wedding cookies, but I’ve always known these cookies as Russian tea balls. I love Russian tea balls, and they’re a mainstay in my Christmas cookie baking every year. They’re crumbly, sweet, crunchy, and covered in powdered sugar. They also freeze well if you bake a bunch of cookies at one time. This recipe makes about two and half dozen, so these may disappear before you get the chance to pop them in the freezer.

The dough is pretty crumbly once you combine all the ingredients, and you have to work with it a little bit to get it to come together. I grab about a ping-pong sized ball of dough, shape it, and roll it between my hands to soften the dough. The butter warms up and holds the cookie together. Once they’re done, you’ll want to roll the cookies in powdered sugar immediately. The warmth from the oven helps the sugar stick.

Russian tea balls
Russian tea balls
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Russian tea balls

  • Author: Lisa
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Ingredients

Scale
  • 1 cup butter, softened
  • 1/2 cup powdered sugar
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
  • 3/4 cup nuts, finely chopped
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt
  • 1/4 cup powdered sugar

Instructions

  1. Cream sugar, butter, and vanilla until combined.
  2. Fold in flour, nuts, and salt.
  3. Form dough into one inch balls. The dough is pretty crumbly, so you may need to knead the dough a few times for it to hold together.
  4. Bake at 400 degrees for 10-15 minutes, until golden.
  5. Roll in extra powdered sugar.

Notes

You can use most nuts. Walnuts and pecans work best!

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Russian tea balls

Twelve Days of Christmas cookies link-up:  Recipe index  |  Sugar cookies  |  Decorated Christmas cookies  |  Traditional cookies  |  Chocolate cookies  |  Peanut butter cookies  |  No bake recipes  |  Non-cookie treats  |  Candy cookies  |  Family favorites  |  Gingerbread  |  Santa’s cookies 

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