Gluten Free Russian Tea Cakes
We all have favorite cookies for the holidays. Ones that make us think of past holidays and favorite family members. In our house, a favorite cookie has recently gotten a facelift to meet my dietary needs. Gluten Free Russian Tea Cakes it is now.
Different Names for This Family Favorite
This family favorite is known by many different names.
Russian Tea Cakes is what my husband knew at as. Mexican Wedding Cookies is what I knew it as. (Or maybe it was Italian Wedding Cookies as my mom is full-blooded Italian?? It was a favorite cookie for my Papa, so mom baked it every year using pecans.) Some people call them Snowballs.
Any name you give it, this is a simple-to-make cookie that is beloved by many. With it basically being butter, nuts, sugar, and a bit of flour to hold it together…how can you go wrong??
One consistency is that both my husband and I grew up with this as a beloved staple at Christmas time. The difference went beyond the name, though, as he has a distinct preference reflected in the recipe shared here.
Making Adjustments in Our House
For several years, I (Laura) have followed a gluten-free diet for health reasons. For the last few years, I have been so busy working full-time, running the sites, and homeschooling the boys. That meant little time or energy to bake for the holidays.
This year I am not working crazy hours. And we are in our own ‘home’ again after a few years of just renting. So the baking has commenced with my quest to have gluten-free options of favorites.
When joining this virtual Christmas Cookie Exchange, I decided it was the perfect time to don that apron and get baking. Russian Tea Cakes is such a simple recipe that I knew the adjustment would be easy.
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Making Gluten Free Russian Tea Cakes
Below is the adjustment made for this post.
I may be playing around with different flour options to see which holds up the best.
The simple method of adjusting this recipe is to pick your favorite gluten-free cup for cup flour.
For this batch, I did 1/2 with almond flour (because it is yummy!) and 1/2 with Bob’s Red Mill Gluten Free 1-to-1 Baking Flour.
You do need to use a flour sifter to process the flour into the bowl. There are many options. We have a basic stainless hand crank one.
Gluten Free Russian Tea Cakes
Dense packages of cookie goodness made glutenfree.
Ingredients
- 1 cup soft butter
- 1/2 cup sifted confectioner's sugar
- 1 tsp. almond extract
- 1 cup almond flour
- 1 1/4 cup gluten free flour blend
- 1/4 tsp. salt
- 3/4 cup finely chopped almonds
- extra confectioner's sugar for coating the cookies.
Instructions
- Mix butter, sifted confectioner's sugar and almond extract with a hand blender.
- Sift together the flours and salt.
- Stir together the butter blend and flour mix.
- Mix in the chopped nuts.
- Chill dough in the refrigerator for at least an hour. It need to be cold to hold shape while you form the balls.
- Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.
- Roll into 1 inch balls.
- Place on an ungreased cookie sheet. (no need to large spacing as the cookies do not spread much.)
- Bake for 10 to 12 minutes, until the cookies are set but not browned.
- Cool for a few minutes on a cooling rack.
- While still warm, coat each cookie with confectioner's sugar.
- Allow to cool completely and then recoat in sugar.
Notes
My husband is all about almond.
You can substitute vanilla extract for the almond extract.
My personal favorite nut for these is pecans.
Gluten-free flours act differently than wheat flour. I prefer to place several cookies in a pasta bowl and then use a spoon to coat them with the powdered sugar. Rolling in sugar is more likely to cause the cookies to explode into crumbs.
If you are following a paleo / keto diet, you can use just almond flour and sub Powdered Erythritol for the powdered sugar. Most say confectioner's on the label (as opposed to granular.) There are also nondairy substitutes for the butter.
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What is Houseful Of Cookies?
Houseful of Cookies is an annual, virtual cookie hop, hosted by Natasha Nicholes of Houseful of Nicholes.
She really likes playing on the “Houseful” theme when there is more than one of something, and since there’s more than one cookie…here we are.
Each year, she gathers a bunch of us from the internet to bake up our epic cookie creations and share them with all of you!
It’s a fun time, and we all have dealt with butter, flour, and various flavorings to bring you our goodies each year.
This year, we present to you, our cookie hop.
Houseful Of Cookies Participants
Brownie Cookies – Houseful of Nicholes
Chocolate Rolo Surprise Cookies – Good Girl Gone Redneck
The Perfect Christmas Sugar Cookies – Love, Jaime
Cake Mix Santa Cookies – Dairy Carrie
Candy Cane Cookies – Brooklyn Active Mama
Chocolate Dipped Peppermint Shortbread Cookies – Honest & Truly
Gingersnap Cookies – Divas With A Purpose
Decorated Ugly Sweater Cookies – 1000 Directions
Mickey Christmas Headband Cookies – Cutefetti
Birds Nest Cookies – My Crafty Life
Cranberry White Chocolate Chip Cookies – Kenya Rae
Gluten-Free Russian Tea Cakes – Day by Day in Our World
Not His Mamma’s Tassies – Heather Spins a Yarn
Molded Peanut Butter Cookies – This Mamas Life
Not Your Mama’s Milk & Cookies – Life of a Ginger
Peanut Butter Marshmallow Chocolate Chunk Cookies – Mama Harris’ Kitchen
Coffee Sandwich Cookies with Browned Buttercream Filling – How Was Your Day?
Butterscotch Cornflake Cookies – Omadarling
Coffee Cookies – Someday I’ll Learn
Toffee Bits Cookies – This Worthey Life
Fruitcake Cookies – Sugar, Spice, & Glitter
Keto Almond Joy Cookies – The Crunchy Mommy
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These are seriously the best cookies I’ve ever made! And mine were gluten and dairy free. Also I added a bit of crushed walnut and used 1/4 cup of almond butter. I also rolled mine in Turmeric Superfood Creamer instead of icing sugar. I did a couple with icing sugar to compare and they were both great. Thanks for sharing this recipe! SO GOOD!
That sounds amazing!
Just made these, followed the recipe to the letter, including refrigerating for an hour. So disappointed because they spread out, which I guess wouldn’t be such a big deal except I wasn’t expecting this and placed them close together so they spread into each other. I’m sure they’ll taste good because it’s basically flour, butter, nuts and sugar, but disappointed that they spread out.
Oh, Sharon, I am just not seeing this comment. I am so sorry that they didn’t hold together well for you.
Cookies that are heavy on butter like these do like to spread.
I’ve found you need a tight ball and really cold dough.
I hope they tasted delicious even with the spread.
I would love to try this recipe and make these for a great get together.
I keep hearing about these tea cakes! We need to try this recipe! Thank you!
These are one of my favorite cookies – although I always get covered in powdered sugar after I take that first bite! LOL
It’s just not a cookie exchange without them.
I totally agree. All about the butter & sugar.