I was introduced to this cookie coincidently by a friend. She said the cookie was almost like Kuih Makmur but better. It does not stick to the top of your mouth. This one she said melts in your mouth. I was intrigued.
That same day I googled the word Russian Cookies. They were many variation of this cookie. It also has many names such as Mexican wedding cakes (or cookies), Italian wedding cookies, butterballs, and occasionally snowball cookies.
I was also surprised with the number of high ratings for this recipe with a minimum four and half stars. To me thats a wow and a must try. Among all the recipes out there I choose Betty Crocker recipe because one blogger said she had the original recipe.
Ingredients
1 cup butter or margarine, softened (228g)
1/2 cup powdered sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cup finely chopped nuts (I used Almonds)
1/4 teaspoon salt
Powdered sugar
Method
- Heat oven to 400ºF.
- Mix butter, 1/2 cup powdered sugar and the vanilla in large bowl. Stir in flour, nuts and salt until dough holds together.
- Shape dough into 1-inch balls. Place about 1 inch apart on ungreased cookie sheet.
- Bake 10 to 12 minutes or until set but not brown. Remove from cookie sheet. Cool slightly on wire rack.
- Roll warm cookies in powdered sugar; cool on wire rack. Roll in powdered sugar again.
Now here comes the trick to make a delicious Russian cookie. To get the best, you need to cream the mixture a little longer by hand.
If you keep beating the batter, it will no longer be possible to rolled the cookies into a ball. It will be too wet but this is what we want. If you do not creamed it enough, the baked cookie will not melt in your mouth and could end up sticking to the roof of your mouth instead.
Since now it is too wet too hold in your hands, it will take two spoons to shape it into something like a ball in other words a drop dough is the only way. Here I use my 1 teaspoon spoon and a melon ball scooper. Baked it until the sides looked slightly browned but not burned then sprinkle the icing sugar on top. I said sprinkle not rolled in to avoid the cookie turning too sweet.
Sprinkling the sugar while the cookie is still hot, helps the powder to stick better.
You cannot go wrong with this cookie and let me tell you that I alone finished the whole batched of cookies. It was that yummy!.
