Russian Tea Cakes

From the blog For Love of the Table

1 cup (1/2 lb.) unsalted butter

1/2 cup (2 oz.) powdered sugar

1 t. vanilla

2 1/4 cups (9 oz.) all-purpose flour

1/4 t. salt

3/4 c. (3 oz.) pecans

Briefly cream the butter and sugar. Beat in the vanilla. Set aside.

Place the flour and pecans in a food processor and process until the pecans are finely ground—some will have disappeared into the flour, but there should still be small, discernible pieces of pecans. Add to the butter mixture with the salt. Stir to form a soft dough.

Mold into 1-inch balls and bake on an ungreased or parchment-lined baking sheet at 400° until set—about 8 to 10 minutes. The cookies will have lost their wet look, will have puffed slightly and cracked. The bottoms of the cookies will be golden brown. Remove from the oven and cool for one minute on the baking sheet. Transfer the cookies to a wire rack and let cool for five minutes.

While the cookies are still warm (not hot), toss in powdered sugar (be gentle, they break). Finish cooling on a wire rack. If you like, use a sieve to dredge the cookies lightly with a final coating of powdered sugar. Store air tight.

Makes 48 cookies.

Note: The cookies should still be slightly warm when tossed in the powdered sugar so that the sugar will adhere…but they shouldn’t be hot. If the cookies are too hot, the sugar will melt to a frosting-like coating.

http://www.forloveofthetable.com/2014/10/an-old-favoriterussian-tea-cakes.html

As published on forloveofthetable.com