Reviews & Comments

these were a pleasant surprise for me and my mother-in-law to find to make for the holidays. not only did they come out good, but they ended up being another big hit with our friends and family! we're going to try different variations of these tea cakes. highly recommend this to anyone!

We have made these for over 40 years for Christmas, only we called them Meltaways..and sometimes my mom would put a dot of red or green frosting on the bottom and stick them together..they were so pretty and melt in you mouth...

I have made these for years,they are my go to cookie of all time and my family would be very upset if I did not make these.They are melt in your mouth,never have they turned out dry or powdery.

Very Dry & bland!! This is NOT a melt in your mouth recipe. I thought I would try this recipe it is simular to one I have that my mom baked all the time during the holidays. A recipe she's had from 1940/50's. I threw the whole thing away. I had my family try them with out telling them which recipe it was. No one liked this recipe posted. They all like my family recipe. my recipe uses 1c crisco, 1c real butter, 1/2c gran sugar creamed togeather, 4tsp vanilla, 4c flour, 2c walnuts, 2 bags powdered sugar to roll warm cookies in. Baked @ 325 abt 15 minutes. She called them Tattle Tale cookies, because she made so many to sell. She would hide them,myself & 5 siblings would find them & sneak to eat them including my dad & as kids you don't think about cleaning up the trail of powdered sugar, so she started calling them Tattle Tales. I would not recommend Russian tea cakes.

I've been making these for almost 35 years, since 2nd grade! The only times they've come out crumby or dry are when I used an electric oven at a relative's house, and when I didn't combine the dough enough. I can't imagine what adding an egg would do, as the previous user tried. It would probably change the character of the cookie, making it cake. It's essentially a shortbread cookie (no egg, lots of butter). They should come out dense, buttery and melt in your mouth. I always say these are "made of sugar, butter and love." I also find it helps to pulse the powdered sugar in a food processor to get out the lumps, then add the nuts and pulse a bit more. It seems to bring out the oil in the nuts, which helps with the moisture. If you don't have a food processor, a blender would also work. I think even a quick chop will help release the oils from the nuts.