Paleo Russian Tea Cakes (also known as Mexican Wedding Cookies) made grain-free and refined sugar-free! These scrumptious Christmas cookies only require a few basic ingredients.
Have you ever had Russian Tea Cakes? How about Mexican Wedding Cakes? Or Italian wedding cookies, Kourabiedes, or Greek wedding cookies, butterballs, or pecan Susans?
Regardless of the name or origin, the concept of all of the above are the same: delightfully buttery cookies rolled in powdered sugar, often with chopped walnuts or pecans in the center.
My family makes them every single year for Christmas. We bake batches of a wide variety of cookies and bars, and everyone goes home with an assortment of all of them. This year, I made it my mission to make all of our traditional treats grain-free, which brings us to these buttery balls o’ bliss.
Using grass-fed butter, almond flour, tapioca flour, pure maple syrup, and walnuts, these Paleo Russian Tea Cakes turn out remarkably similar to the classic. In fact, I bet most people won’t be able to tell the difference!
How about we bake up a batch?!
How to Make Paleo Russian Tea Cakes:
Add all ingredients for the tea cakes to a stand mixer, and beat on medium speed until well-combined. Refrigerate cookie dough for 2 hours. Form balls out of the cookie dough, about 1 to 1.5 inches in diameter and place on a parchment-lined baking sheet. Place tray of dough balls in the freezer and freeze for 15 minutes.
When you’re ready to bake, preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
Place rolling sweetener of choice in a bowl and roll each ball of dough in the sweetener. Place the balls back onto the parchment-lined baking sheet. Bake 12 to 15 minutes, just until cookies begin turning slightly golden-brown.
Sweetener Options for Rolling:
Traditional Russian Tea Cakes are rolled in confectioner’s (or powdered) sugar, but you have several non cane sugar options. To keep the recipe paleo, you can use pure maple sugar, or for a lower sugar version, use powdered erythritol, powdered monk fruit sweetener, or powdered Swerve.
You could also be a real rebel and make a glaze for the balls rather than going the powdered route.
More Grain-Free Cookie Recipes:
- Paleo Chocolate Thumbprint Cookies
- Chocolate Dipped Molasses Cookies
- Chocolate Dipped Cardamom Orange Paleo Shortbread Cookies
- Cardamom Almond Paleo Thumbprint Cookies
Enjoy these buttery nuggets of joy!
My cookbook, Paleo Power Bowls, is now available! CLICK HERE to check it out. Thank you for your support!
If you make this recipe, please feel free to share a photo and tag me at @The.Roasted.Root on Instagram!
Paleo Russian Tea Cakes
Ingredients
- 1 cup 2 sticks grass-fed butter, softened
- 1/4 cup pure maple syrup
- 1 tsp pure vanilla extract
- 3 1/2 cups superfine almond flour
- 1/2 cup tapioca flour
- 2/3 cup raw walnuts finely chopped
- 1/4 tsp sea salt
For Rolling:
- 1/3 cup sugar-free confectioners sugar or maple sugar
Instructions
- Add all ingredients for the tea cakes to a stand mixer, and beat on medium speed until well-combined. Refrigerate cookie dough for 2 hours.
- Form balls out of the cookie dough, about 1 to 1.5 inches in diameter and place on a parchment-lined baking sheet. Place tray of dough balls in the freezer and freeze for 15 minutes.
- When you’re ready to bake, preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
- Add the sweetener of choice (for rolling) in a bowl and roll each ball of dough in the sweetener. Place the balls back onto the parchment-lined baking sheet. Bake 12 to 15 minutes, just until cookies begin turning slightly golden-brown.
Nutrition
I just made this recipe last night. They turned our delicious. To make them gluten/dairy free I used Earth Balance butter substitute. This was one suggested by another blogger who said it holds up better than others when softened/melted. I also had arrowroot on hand so I used that instead of the tapioca. If only I had tried to use something different for the maple syrup to make them more keto friendly but I love maple syrup and didn’t think of it until I offered one to a diabetic. As with any Russian tea cake you have to treat them gently when rolling them in the powdered sugar substitute so I just had to eat one or two that didn’t hold up during that process. My gain there! In the end there were 45 nice sized cookies made when the recipe was doubled.
Thanks so much for the sweet note and the feedback, Patti! This is all super helpful. I’m thrilled to hear you enjoy the cookies and thanks so much for the thorough review! xo
I just made the dough to be baked later. I’m a bit confused about rolling the balls in the sugars before baking. Wouldn’t that make the powder sugar melt?
Hi Audra! I roll them in the sugar before and after, but you can stick with rolling them after they bake if you’d like 🙂 xo
Hi Julia,
Can I substitute the walnuts for a different nut like almonds or pistachios?
Hi there! Yes, absolutely! Just be sure to chop them fairly finely so that they stay stuck inside of the dough 🙂 I would pulse them in a food processor to make the chopping easier. Enjoy!
Could coconut oil or butter be substituted for butter if going dairy free?
Hi Jane! Absolutely. Coconut oil is slightly greasier than butter so you may need to adjust the amount of coconut oil down or the amount of almond flour up. You’re going for a dough that is nice and sticky and holds together well. Let me know how they turn out! xo
Can I substitute arrowroot for the tapioca?
Absolutely! Arrowroot flour works as a 1:1 substitute for tapioca flour. Hope you enjoy! xo
I made these bc your recipe was the closest to traditional Russian tea cakes that I found. Next time, I will increase the amount of tapioca and decrease the almond flour a little. Just to help get a slightly sandier texture and to use less almond flour. Besides that, perfect! I refrigerated my dough over night just bc I made it late and didn’t have time to make them. Froze for maybe 10 min before baking and they came out great! Rolled in homemade confectionary sugar w cinnamon while slightly warm.
I’m happy you like them, Rebecca! I appreciate the feedback and thoughts! xoxo
@Rebecca, what ratio would you say you would do for the flours? are we talking 1 C Tapioca, to 3C almond flour? more or less?