Whole Foods Market
NE 15th/Fremont – Portland
$1.19
The Russian tea cake (aka: Mexican wedding ball/ Southern pecan butterball/snowdrop/Viennese sugar ball. etc.) is a cookie that I’ve purchased almost never, baked only once or twice in my life, but has been in my mouth more times than I could ever count.
It has appeared on virtually every single cookie table at every single bar mitzvah I’ve ever attended (a number quite possibly reaching triple digits at this point in my life – no joke) – as well as on at least 70% percent of holiday cookie plates I’ve ever received (or raided).
And this is not a complaint. Not at all. Because Russian tea cakes, when made with real butter (not Crisco) and especially with pecans (instead of walnuts) are delicious.
So…if for some reason you don’t get invited to many bar and bat mitzvahs, or if you got shorted on the holiday cookie plates this year and you need a fix, Whole Food’s version will do the trick. It measures up, for sure.
• Buttery (real butter – unsalted – which means I sprinkled a lil’ bit o salt on mine. I recommend doing this.)
• Delicate, melt-in-your mouth texture
• Pecans (the ingredients sticker did say “pecans OR walnuts” – so I may have just lucked out this time. Walnuts are not a deal breaker for me, but j’ADORE pecans.)
• Coated in powdered sugar. A little messy, but it wouldn’t be a Russian tea cake without the p.sugar. Just don’t wear dark colored nice clothing while you eat it.
Always pecans! Blog is great. Thanks for sharing!
I’m a real fan of this cookie. It’s not wise for me to make them myself unless I can give them all away immediately. When I need a fix, I really like the possibly-too-large ones at Lovejoy Bakers. Good to know the whole foods ones are tasty, too.
Hi Amy! I haven’t tried the Russian tea cakes at Lovejoy – thanks for the heads-up. But I adore their volkornbrot (super dense, seedy, whole grain bread) – amazing, avaiable weekends, only.
Too large, you say? Something tells me that won’t be such a problem.
Please write the recipe
It is not in the store all the tiime
Hi Naglaa,
I don’t bake the cookies featured here, I just eat them and write about them!
There is no shortage of recipes availble online for Russian tea cakes, though. Also known as Mexican wedding balls, snowballs and sometimes pecan balls. Here’s one (of probably thousands); you can’t go wrong with Alice Medrich! https://food52.com/recipes/67298-russian-tea-cakes