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Betty Crocker Russian Teacakes

Russian Teacakes look like Snowball Cookies

Prep 20 minutes  Bake 10 mins  Roll in Sugar and Cool  20 mins  Eat 50 mins

Russian Teacakes, Mexican Wedding Cakes, Snowball Cookies.  They may be called different names in our individual cultures, but they are ALL Delicious!  They were the favorite Christmas cookie in our family.  My mother taught us to make them at a young age, which was such an amazing mother-daughter bonding experience and how I came to love cooking in the kitchen.

So who is Betty Crocker?

My Betty Crocker cookbook features favorite Russian Teacakes and fun Galaxy Cookies on opposite page.

Like every young woman in Minneapolis, I was gifted a 1969 Betty Crocker cookbook and the Russian Teacakes recipe was one of the first I made out of that book.  It’s tattered and torn, but well loved for all the old fashioned comfort recipes of my youth.  Betty Crocker is a fictional character introduced in 1921 by General Mills, which milled wheat into flour along the Mississippi River in Minneapolis beginning in 1856. Don’t you love Wikipedia?

You’ve gotta use real butter!

Simple ingredients make delicious cookies

Made of butter, flour, powdered sugar and walnuts and vanilla.  Super simple, but melt in your mouth and nutty deliciousness.  The cookie of my dreams!  Those white Snowball cookies you see on cookie plates in the supermarket are NOTHING like these home made Russian Teacakes.  The difference is the simple ingredients and the REAL butter.  Yes, you’ve got to go for it here.  No substitutions!

Russian Teacakes contain confectioners sugar.  What’s that?

Mix soft butter, powdered sugar and vanilla.

Whip up some soft butter with confectioners’ sugar or powdered sugar and vanilla until creamy.  Confectioners’ sugar is an old-fashioned name for powdered sugar. The sugar is ground super fine into a powder and perfect for making candy, icings and other confections presumably by commercial bakers.

Chop walnuts until they are the size of small peas or smaller

Finely Chop walnuts until they are the size of small peas or smaller using a chopper or sharp knife.

Walnuts and flour are folded into butter base.

Fold walnut and dry ingredients – flour and salt slowly into the creamy butter base just until incorporated.

The Russian Teacake mixture will look shaggy at first.

The Russian Teacakes mixture will look shaggy at first.

The Russian Teacake mixture is ready to form into small balls.

Keep folding until it looks like this and then stop.  Form the mixture into 1″ balls and place on a baking sheet, spacing them apart.  Don’t make them too large as they will grow in the oven and you want them to be bite size.

Bake the Russian Teacakes until they are set or beginning to brown. Immediately roll them in powdered sugar.

Bake them very briefly until they are just set or a slight brown on the bottom, about 10 minutes.

Russian Teacakes look like Snowball Cookies

When you remove the baking sheet from the oven, immediately roll them in a small bowl of powdered sugar.  Let them cool on wax paper or parchment paper. After they’ve cooled, roll them again in powdered sugar. Let cool completely.  Then pack them into boxes or containers for your Holiday cookie tray.  When we were children, we would bake up a lot of different Christmas cookies in advance.  We would store them in old candy, nylon stocking boxes (throwback word!) or cookie tins, using wax paper between the layers of cookies.  Since it was cold and probably snowy outside in Minneapolis, they would get stored in a cold porch, closet or basement area until we served them among family and guests at Christmastime.

The Holiday Cookie Baking class at the Holy Nativity Community Hall.

I held a Holiday Cookie Baking class at the Holy Nativity Community Hall for 15 years where as a group, we would bake eight different cookies each year.  I encouraged my regular students to bring their children and grandchildren for this annual event. Young and old would spend a Saturday afternoon baking and listening to Christmas carols.

Russian Teacakes made with love at our Holiday Cookie Baking class.

We would bake 1000 cookies together and lay them out to admire, before we all descended on them with our cookie tins to take them home. I am proud to have taught so many young bakers over the years and inspired them to continue the holiday tradition of baking cookies.

Sugar Cookies with Buttercream Icing

My favorite cookies we baked in the Cookie Class were the decorated sugar cookies. Get the recipe here.  Decorated with love by our young bakers, these cookies have created memories that will last a lifetime.

Print this Recipe.

Russian Teacakes

Russian Teacakes, Mexican Wedding Cakes, Snowball Cookies are a real splurge. They may go by different names, but they are all delicious and the favorite Christmas cookie in my family. You gotta use real butter with these to get the nutty melt in your mouth experience. No substitutions!

1 cup butter, softened
1/2 cup powdered sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 1/4 cups flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup finely chopped walnuts

1. Preheat oven to 400°. Place softened butter, powdered sugar, and vanilla in a mixing bowl. Whip the butter mixture with an electric mixer until creamy.

2. Chop the walnuts fine until they are size of peas or smaller.

3. Fold walnuts, flour and salt into the creamy butter base with a rubber spatula just until incorporated. The mixture will go from looking shaggy to lumpy.

4. Roll dough into 1-inch balls. Place on an ungreased baking sheet with a rim, so they don’t roll off. Bake for 10-12 minutes until set and just barely brown. Immediately roll them in sugar and cool on wax paper. Once cool, roll them again in powdered sugar and store your delicious, buttery Russian Teacakes

Servings: 48  –  68 calories per serving