RUSSIAN TEA BALL COOKIES

Russian Tea Balls are the cookies that say Christmas to me! My mother always made them at Christmastime and I could not wait to eat the sweet snowball-of-a-cookie.

Russian Tea Balls are shortbreads infused with real vanilla and tiny bits of walnuts... pure heaven!

They are so simple to make. Using few ingredients, Russian Tea Balls mix together into a mouthful of delicious Christmas flavor...

I am so thrilled to be part of...

The Everyday Home's 1st Annual "Virtual" Christmas Cookie Exchange

It's like a virtual cook book of Christmas Cookies. Look for the list of blogs participating below.

Now, back to the tea balls...

Because these are called "tea balls" I thought they belonged in a snowy white tea cup!

MY MOM'S CHRISTMAS RUSSIAN TEA BALLS

1 cup butter, softened

1/2 cup powdered sugar

1 tsp vanilla (or a little more)

2 1/4 cups all purpose flour

2/3 cup walnuts or pecans, finely chopped

1/4 tsp salt

powdered sugar

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Mix the softened butter, powdered sugar and vanilla in a large bowl. I used a hand mixer for this job.

Add the flour, nuts and salt. Mix till combined.

The dough will be dry but can be pressed together.

Shape dough into 1 inch balls. Put on parchment lined baking sheet an inch apart.

Bake for 10-12 minutes.

Remove cookies to a cooling rack. Slightly cool cookies and roll into powdered sugar. Place the cookies back on the cooling rack and let them totally cool. Roll them in powdered sugar when cool.

Here are a few other cookies you might like...