Russian Tea Cakes

Whenever Spring is here, I'd usually try to reorganize my notes on my fridge. This time I came across a faded yellow sticky note that's barely legible. It's a Russian Tea Cakes recipe! But I wasn't able to get my hands on it yet...until I finish wrapping up the glutinous rice "Zongzi" I prepared yesterday (I'll further elaborate in my next post). So back to the cookies...I've always loved Russian tea cakes, and back in the days when baking didn't even exist in my busy single life, I used to stroll down North Beach in SF in search of authentic Italian and sometimes European bakery. These cute little sweet cookies were pretty pricey then, and they usually didn't make it out the bakery door. Now that I know how easy they are to make, I am going to bake up several dozens of them. Some for my breakfast with coffee, snack time with tea, and some for my girlfriends. How lovely!

Here is the recipe from All Recipes, with minor changes.

Ingredients:

1 cup butter

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

6 tablespoons confectioners' sugar

2 cups all-purpose flour (less 3 tbsp)

1 cup finely chopped almonds (I blanched and ground my own)
3 TBSP whole milk powder

1/3 cup confectioners' sugar for decoration
cinnamon sugar for variation

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). I baked @ 325 degrees F

1. In a medium bowl, cream butter and vanilla until smooth. Combine the 6 tablespoons confectioners' sugar and flour; stir into the butter mixture until just blended. Mix in the chopped walnuts. Roll dough into 1 inch balls, and place them 2 inches apart on an ungreased cookie sheet.
2. Bake for 12 minutes in the preheated oven. When cool a little, roll in remaining confectioners' sugar. I also like to roll mine in the sugar a second time.

I wonder what's the association of this to Mexican Wedding Cookies. Don't they have just about the same ingredients? Hmmm...who created them first, the Russians or the Mexicans? I googled a bit and found this and this. Now that I found out the cookies hailed from several other countries, mainly Europe. There is this tasty, melt in your mouth Suji or Sugee cookies available in Malaysia that have about the same ingredients, except that some avid bakers like to add powdered milk. I read that it was introduced in India. Anyone?