This is the only cookie I know that has so many names. It is also known as Russian tea cake, snowball, butterball, polvorones in Mexico, mantecados in Spain, snow white (putri salju) in Indonesia. There are just too many variations of it.
Russian tea cakes appeared in Russia in the 18th century as a confection used in a tea-sharing ceremony. By the 20th century, they were a part of wedding and Christmas traditions in the U.S.
The first russian tea cakes that I tried was air flown from United States. My uncle, who lives in US, got married during Christmas time, two years ago. Since the cookie is a wedding and Christmas tradition, it was served in the wedding two years ago. My mother attended the wedding and she liked the cookies so much that she asked my uncle for some cookies to "tapao" a few pieces for me and my brothers. I only got to eat one piece, yes, only one precious piece. So the following year, I booked 4 tickets to US and stuff myself silly with the russian tea cakes and other goodies.
I cannot keep on going to US just to eat russian tea cakes, right. The air tickets are just too costly for 4 of us and the jetlag that we have to suffer was unbearable for me. The two cakelettes woke up at 2 am for the first one week and I was extremely exhausted. I tried to stay awake during day time and could only sleep for 2-3 hours daily.
I wished I could just order in Amazon and get them posted here via Vpost. I wished that too for Laduree and Pierre Herme goodies. Since I could not buy one here, I can always try to make them. So the search for the best russian tea cakes was on. After scrutinising more than 10 recipes and tried some of them, I found a nice recipe that gives that melt in the mouth feeling when the cookie was inside my mouth. The search is over and the result is here.
