25 Days of Christmas Baking Day 20: Russian Tea Cakes

This is not one that I ever associated with Christmas, but I guess these are on most people's lists.  Maybe this is why I haven't:  So, my family is an official American mutt family.  However, there are a few stereotypical Caucasian-American origins my family does not have:  we are not at all Italian, we are not at all Eastern European, and we are not at all Irish.  My sister, Beth, married someone with significant Italian heritage, and my brother, Sam, married someone who, at the time, was a Russian citizen. So, we have covered some of the  bases.  But anyways, with no Eastern European heritage, I had never had these before.  It seems like most lists have these things on them.  So, I included them.

I am not 100% sure about these cookies' true origins, as every recipe that I have found for them tells tales of their Latvian grandmother, or how they were a family tradition in Lithuania, or Romania or Hungary, etc.  I haven't actually seen someone say that their family brought the tradition from actual Russia, but they are definitely somehow Eastern European, even if the recipe was only smuggled in the skirts of their Estonian grandmother--though I'm not sure why one would need to smuggle a recipe for a shortbread cookie with walnuts and rolled in powdered sugar, much as one would smuggle resistance documents.  But who am I to ruin their family legends?

Russian Tea Cakes

1 c. butter
1 tsp vanilla extract
6 tbl powdered sugar
2 c. flour
1 c. walnuts
1/3 c powdered sugar for decoration

1. Preheat oven to 350
2. cream butter and vanilla.
3. add powdered sugar and flour
4. mix in walnuts
5. roll into 1 inch balls and place on an ungreased cookie sheet
6.  bake for 12 minutes
7. when cool, roll in powdered sugar