A few weeks ago Sheb and I had a Russian-themed meal set and for the brunch, I tried my hand at Russian Teacakes. They were okay but I felt that they were too dense (hard?) for my liking. I brought some to work and my colleague (Susan Lambert) agreed that they were not ‘right’ and she suggested that I had perhaps overworked the dough. She also suggested that I try her mother’s recipe. As a bit of incentive, today she supplied me a few of these tasty morsels and I must agree that her mother’s recipe is far superior to mine… so in the spirit of Universal Harmony and Altruism I offer it up to you.(By the way, you can tell that Susan is a ‘numbers-oriented’ kinda gal. Check out her measurements. I am surprised they are not in metric!)
Bon Appétit!
Software:
· 1 cup butter (I have always used a high quality margarine and so did my mother)
· 2.25 cup flour
· 1 tsp vanilla extract
· 0.25 tsp salt
· 0.5 cup powdered sugar (in the dough) + extra powdered sugar to roll the finished cookies in
· 0.75 cup chopped pecans
Preparation –
1. Preheat oven to 400 F.
2. Combine all ingredients until thoroughly mixed and uniform cohesive dough. (If you like the pecans coarsely chopped, you may want to hold them out until the other ingredients have come together. We had a nut grinder at home and the pieces were all less than 1/4" in size.)
3. Shape into 1" balls by rolling between your palms.
4. Bake on ungreased cookie sheets for 8-12 minutes. (Check bottom of cookies to determine when done - top of cookie should not be brown).
5. Roll the hot cookies in powdered sugar, cool and roll them in powdered sugar again.
