Mexican, Russian, Italian. . . you decide

Let it chill

After round one in the sugar

Oh soooo good!

The last couple of weeks have been so crazy busy that I was really excited to be able to take the time to look through my recipes and find something fun to make.  I found a card that I had made one of the many times I transferred recipes out of my mom's recipe box many years ago.  It was called "Mexican Tea Cakes" so I thought "I know I've heard of "Russian Tea Cakes" before too"; I'll do some research and find out the difference, make them both and see how they are. 

What I found was that no matter what part of the world they claim to be from - they are all the same basic recipe.  Flour, powdered sugar, butter, vanilla, salt and chopped nuts.  Some claim it is the nuts that make the difference, some claim it is the shape (Italian Wedding cookies are the same but crescent shaped) but really they are all the same.  I chose to use pecans because I like them and they are easy to chop.

Having the butter softened definitely helps and wrapping them in plastic wrap for a couple of hours helps them keep their round shape when baking rather than forming a flatter bottom.  It is the 2nd round of powder sugar that really makes the difference - I used a plastic zip closing bag to "shake" them in.  After all the research the true answer about what to call these is YUMMY!  I have decided to ship the majority of them off to my daughter in college because I'm having such a hard time not calling them Breakfast, Lunch & Dinner!