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Ben publishes a much liked recipe from his time CouchSurfing in BellinghamDuring my four night stay in Bellingham, Erica must have made several dozen of these Russian Tea Cakes and they were incredible (and really easy to make) so I urge you to get baking and try 'em out...
Ingredients
- 1 cup of butter
- 2 cups of powdered sugar
- 2 teaspoons of vanilla extract
- 2 cups of all-purpose flour
- 1 cup of pecans, hazelnuts or other nuts, toasted and finely ground (if using hazelnuts, wrap in a dishtowel while still warm and roll about until most of the brown skin comes off)
- 1/8th of a teaspoon of ground cinnamon
Instructions
Using an electric mixer, beat the butter in a large bowl until light and fluffy. Add 1/2 a cup of powdered sugar and the vanilla and beat until well blended.
Beat in the flour and then the nuts. Divide the dough in half and form each half into balls.
Wrap separately in plastic and chill until cold (about 30 minutes).
Preheat the oven to 350F/175C.
Whisk the remaining 1 1/2 cups of powdered sugar and cinnamon in a bowl to blend. Set cinnamon sugar to one side.
Working with half of the chilled dough, roll dough by 2 teaspoonful's between palms into balls. Arrange balls on heavy and large baking sheet, spacing 1/2 inch apart. Bake cookies until golden brown on bottom and just pale golden on top (about 18 minutes).
Cool cookies for 5 minutes on baking sheet. Gently toss warm cookies in cinnamon sugar to coat completely. Transfer coated cookies to rack and cool completely. Repeat procedure with remaining half of dough. Store airtight at room temperature; reserve remaining cinnamon sugar.)
Sift remaining cinnamon sugar over cookies and serve.