January 29, 2011  by

Russian Tea Cakes– the 18 min, impressive treat

I’m not Russian, nor do I drink tea, so its strange we somehow went from mother’s Swedish Pancakes to Russian Tea Cakes. She loved to serve the fancy little dollops of sugar and fat on silver plates, but I liked them warm. Never could wait until they cooled, as is the proper way.

The batter-mix until it barely sticks together
The oddity came in handy today, when, in a panic, Porsche reminded me I had to make “something Russian” to go along with her world report on Russia (at 5! yikes). As she talks about how Tsar Nicholas and family were murdered, the sturgeon are slaughtered for caviar, and how Fabrege eggs are in museums (oh, and can she pleeese have more ballet), she is going to be giving out tea cakes.
I must say, they don’t go over well at parties, even though they look as good as they taste. I don’t know if people are averse to trying something new, especially when coated with powered sugar. I will say this: they taste great, are so easy a 5 year old can do it, AND take less than 5 min to make and 9 min to cook. if you are EVER in a pinch, make these.
Once again, the Sarah version, to use portions that are meaningful instead of wasteful.

Prep time: 5 min (if butter is soft)

Cook time: 9 min

Ingredients

2/3 cup soft butter

3 full tsp of powdered sugar

1 tsp of vanilla

3/4 cup flour

pinch salt

(walnuts if desired)

Preparation
  1. Place butter and vanilla in a mixing bowl, and using paddle attachment, mix well (a minute or so) on med
  2. Add the powdered sugar.
  3. Add the flour and salt until just mixed (the dough will come off the sides of the bowl). If not, add a bit more flour
    4. Form small balls (ab nickle size around
    for kids. Larger for adults)
  4. Remove and form in to small balls. As you can see from the picture, 2/3 butter recipe made more than enough for 13 5 year olds and teachers, or a silver plate.
  5. Bake for 9 min or until the cakes are bouncy on the top
  6. Remove and allow to cool
  7. Roll again in powdered sugar
Bake, then sprinkle w/powdered
sugar (can roll in sugar  instead)
A note on NUTS: so many people are allergic to nuts of all kinds, I make this in 2 versions–with and without. Works either way. If you want some nuts, walnuts are best, and not much-about 1/4 cup, or else you need to change the recipe.
The finished product, 18 min later!

Another note on dryness: this recipe is interesting, in that the ‘best’ tea cakes, according to the mother-of-all-cooks, (mom), are flaky to the point of nearly falling apart. I’m not a fan of the falling-apart anything. It’s messy. I’m sure she meant crumbling in the mouth. Regardless, play around with the measurements to fit your liking. These are by far, the easiest, tasiest morsels you’ll make.

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