Mom's Mexican Wedding Cookies - by Lisa

Merry Christmas! I have been excited about making these cookies all month as I knew who would be the perfect recipient for a surprise shipment of cookies! A couple of Christmases ago, I learned that these cookies are the absolute favorite of my father-in-law. I actually made these last weekend, but I wanted to make sure the cookies were received before I wrote about them for maximum surprise effect. :) Hope you like them Larry!

In my household, these cookies go by the name Russian Teacakes, and my sister Karla is the real expert when it comes to making them. I was quite surprised to see that when compared side by side, the recipes were rather different. Granulated sugar instead of powdered sugar. Different amounts of flour and vanilla. I was very curious to see just how these would compare to the version I am used to making.

Since I am already accustomed to making this style of cookie, putting it all together was pretty simple. I used my quick chop to crush up all the walnuts and my cookie scooper to make fast (and uniform) work of placing the cookies on the baking sheet. They baked for about 25 minutes and came out nice and golden. When I have made the teacakes in the past, I used a large plastic bag full of powered sugar and gently shook the cookies around in it. But I used the method suggested in the book this time which was rolling them in a bowl of powered sugar. I found this new way was much easier and faster!

After they were cooled and rolled, I packed up half of them for shipping and indulged on the other half. I thought they were quite tasty and noticed they were a little bit crispier than the version I have made before. It was a pleasant change, and I liked seeing how these turned out. I can easily see myself using this recipe again for a nice change of pace from the teacake variety.