Russian tea cakes recipe

By: Abigail Nawrot

Staff writer

As a first generation American, I grew up surrounded by Slavic dishes and having a Russian mother and a Polish father was a huge part of my identity. Not only was I surrounded by the language, but we were also very involved in the community, particularly in the Slavic Pentecostal Church. I grew up with other Russian friends, traveled to other churches and was surrounded by other Russians.

Going to Shenendehowa High School, they really attempted to celebrate cultural diversity, and we had days where students would bring in dishes akin to our cultures.

The dish that I brought in nearly every time was Russian tea cakes.

True to its name, Russian tea cakes tend to be a little dry and powdery, so they’re best consumed with some sort of beverages, such as milk or tea.

Ingredients:

1 cup of butter

1 teaspoon of vanilla extract

6 tablespoons of confectioners’ sugar

2 cups of all-purpose flour

1 cup of chopped walnuts

1/3 cup of confectioners’ sugar for decoration

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 350 F (175 C).

In a medium bowl, stir butter and vanilla until smooth. Combine the 6 tablespoons confectioners’ sugar and flour; stir into the butter mixture until just blended, then mix in the chopped walnuts. 

Roll dough into 1 inch balls, and place them 2 inches apart on an ungreased cookie sheet.

Bake for 12 minutes in the preheated oven. When cool, roll in remaining confectioners’ sugar.

 Making these cookies is always a very nostalgic, almost spiritual experience. I think back to all of the times that I’ve watched my family make it and I can almost hear me and my brother’s groans as my mom commands us to put the walnuts in a bag, and pound it with what we liked to call “the cooking hammer”. My older sisters would roll the cookie balls in sugar, casually licking their fingers when Mama wasn’t looking, or throwing some dough into their mouths, and even giving us some.

We always had to be very stealthy with sneaking dough, not willing to risk the wrath of our Russian mother.

The only complaint that I genuinely have with this recipe is that it’s literally sugar on top of sugar. Something I do to remedy the overwhelming sweetness that will make your cavity throb, is by replacing confectioners’ sugar with 3 tablespoons cane sugar, and 3 tablespoon brown. It gives it a bit less of a crumbly texture, but it makes the sweet taste less obvious. When paired with a beverage of some sort, it delivers the perfect stick-to-the-roof-of-your-mouth texture.