This easy gluten free Russian tea cookie recipe is a delicious holiday cookie. These buttery, nut-filled treats are the perfect accompaniment to a warm cup of tea, making them a beloved classic for generations. My Russian tea cookies melt in your mouth and have an incredible light airiness.
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I hope these scrumptious, gluten free Russian tea cookies will help add some cheer to your day. Whether it is a holiday or any day, cookies make the days sweeter! These cookies are so light they melt in your mouth. They are full of delicious flavor. This recipe is tried and true. You can also read through many reader comments and see all the fun flavor variations my readers have created.
If you love cookies as much as we do, you will want to check out all of my delicious gluten free cookie recipes.
Love making these cookies with the grandkids. Some don’t like nuts so we substitute Enjoy Life mini chips. We always make these on Christmas Eve for them to leave for Santa. I had tried so many horrible GF recipes and a waste of expensive ingredients. Thankfully, I found you! I share them with others who need GF recipes. This was such a game changer because I knew nothing about gluten free! Thank you!”
Carol., Blog comment
Allergen Information:
These cookies are gluten-free, soy-free, and egg-free. To make this recipe dairy-free, use plant-based butter. To make this recipe gum-free, use my DIY Gluten Free Flour Blend. It uses psyllium husk instead of xanthan or guar gum.
If you want more Christmas-style cookies, check out my best gluten free Christmas Cookies recipes.
Ingredient Notes:
For the full list of ingredients and amounts, please go to the recipe card below.
- Gluten Free Flour Blend – I tested this recipe with King Arthur Measure for Measure and Bob’s Red Mill 1:1 GF Blend. Other blends should work, but every gluten free flour blend has a different grain-to-starch ratio. This can affect the moisture level, so you may need more or less flour or liquid.
- Xanthan Gum – A binder is essential, especially in this recipe. Add one teaspoon of xanthan or guar gum if your blend lacks a binder.
- Powdered Sugar and Cane Sugar.
- Butter – Use unsalted butter.
- Pure Vanilla Extract – Readers also like to use almond extract.)
Can you use different nuts?
Although pecans are traditionally used in this easy tea cookie recipe, walnuts or pistachios.
I made these this past weekend and I’m in love!! they truly just melt in your mouth. I substituted the nuts for a dried cherry, cranberry, and blueberry mix since I can’t have nuts and they still turned out really well. definitely going to have to make these again with how addictive they are.”
Jeanette K., Pinterest comment
You can also make a nut-free crinkle cookie like these gluten free honey crinkle cookies.
Tips For Success
1. Don’t forget to chill the dough. This will help prevent your cookies from spreading when baked.
2. Don’t take a hot cookie sheet and put the batter on it, or I promise the cookies won’t turn out. They start baking immediately, and it messes with the shape of them. Use a couple of sheets and rotate them out when making large batches of cookies if needed.
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Step-By-Step Photos and Directions:
Step 1: Slowly cream the butter with the powdered sugar in a stand mixer. You can also use an electric mixer or mix this by hand in a large
Step 2: Place the nuts onto a cutting board. Chop up the raw pecans into small pieces with a chopper. I have this chopper, and it chops the nuts easily.
Step 3: Add the rest of the ingredients to the mixer bowl. cover the bowl with plastic wrap and chill the dough for 30 minutes. Chilling helps the cookies hold their shape when they bake. Chilling also softens the rice flour in the blend, eliminating grit.
📢 Sandi says: Every gluten-free flour blend has a different starch-to-grain ratio. The brand of gluten-free flour you use will affect the moisture of the batter. If your cake batter is too runny, add more flour, and if it is too thick, add more liquids.
Read Why Gluten-Free Flour Blends Vary to learn more about this.
Step 4: Remove the dough from the refrigerator. Now is a good time to preheat the oven to 350º F.
Step 5: Line a
Step 6: Your dough will be firm enough to roll into balls. Bake at 350º F for 8-10 minutes.
Step 7: When you remove them from the oven, allow them to cool briefly on a cooling rack.
Step 8: Roll them in powdered sugar!
Frequently Asked Questions:
You can easily make these cookies in a bowl. Put all of your dry ingredients in a large mixing bowl and whisk to blend them. Add the wet ingredients to a smaller bowl. Mix the two and then scoop onto the cookie sheet.
Store these cookies in an airtight container. They will keep fresh for up to 3 days.
Yes, you can easily freeze these cookies. We like to make a double batch and freeze the extras. Then, all we have to do is defrost them and roll them in the powdered sugar.
More Gluten Free Cookie Recipes:
- These delicious Gluten Free Cranberry Shortbread Bars can be made with any fruit!
- If you love melt-in-your-mouth cookies, these Gluten Free Austrian Vanillekipferl Cookies are another delicious cookie.
- Edible Gluten Free Cookie Dough (because sometimes the dough is the best part!)
- If you love a sandwich-style cookie, these Gluten Free Nutella Linzer Cookies are fun to make.
- Crinkle cookies are a lot of fun to make. Give this easy Gluten Free Chocolate Mint Crinkle Cookies recipe a try.
- These Gluten Free Ginger Cookies have a delicious pop of ginger flavor.
Love This Recipe?
If you made and enjoyed this recipe, I would be incredibly grateful if you could leave a comment below. Please include which flour blend you used. This will help others know this recipe is delicious. Thank you!
Gluten Free Russian Tea Cookies
Ingredients
- 1 cup unsalted butter very softened
- ½ cup powdered sugar
- 2 cups gluten free flour blend
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- dash salt
- ¼ cup raw pecans chopped
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Instructions
- In a mixing bowl, add butter, vanilla and sugar. Beat on low speed until sugar is incorporated.
- Slowly add flour on low speed and mix until blended. Add pecans and mix on low. Chill the dough for 30 minutes.
- Preheat the oven to 350º F.
- Roll dough into 1 1/2 inch balls.
- Place dough balls onto parchment paper lined cookie sheet.
- Bake for 8-10 minutes.
- Remove GENTLY with a thin spatula onto a cooling rack. These cookies are very crumbly when hot.
- Allow to cool 15 minutes. Roll in powdered sugar.
Notes
- I have tested this recipe with King Arthur Measure for Measure GF, Bob’s Red Mill 1 to 1 GF blend, and Authentic Foods Multi Blend in this recipe. That doesn’t mean others will not work, I just have not tested other flours.
- If your gluten free flour blend doesn’t contain Xanthan Gum, please add 3/4 teaspoon.
- To make this recipe dairy-free, substitute the butter for vegan butter.
- These cookies will keep up to 4 days in an airtight container, or up to 4 months in the freezer.
SPECIAL NOTE
Please know that every gluten free flour blend has a different starch to grain ratio. If you use a blend I didn’t test, my rule of thumb is to add more flour if your dough or batter is wet and add more liquid if the dough or batter is too dry!
Nutrition
Nutrition Disclaimer
Nutritional information is an estimate provided to you as a courtesy. You should calculate the actual nutritional information with the products and brands you are using with your preferred nutritional calculator.
Note: this post is updated from an older January 2017 post with more recipe details.
This is my husbands favorite cookie and though he is not gluten free (I am) he said they were just as good as the ones I made before going gluten free. This is a great recipe that yields a tender, delicious cookie. Thank you for this recipe!! (Oh, and I made exactly as written with no changes – yum!!)
I love to hear non-gf readers love my recipes as well. Thank you so much for coming back to let me know you both loved the cookies!
These are really good but I had to bake them for almost double the time, it was exactly 24 cookies so they weren’t too big, and I checked my oven temp with an oven thermometer.
Hi Sara, That is really interesting your cookies needed to bake so much longer. You used a metal cookie pan and not glass bottom?
I used pecans instead of walnuts and King Arthur measure for measure flour. These were so dry I couldn’t swallow them. And the flour still tasted uncooked after baking. The nut portion was so small you really did not get the pecan flavor in the cookie. I’ll never use this recipe again.
Hi Leslie, I am sorry you didn’t end up with perfect cookies. Can I ask how you measured your flour? It sounds like they were too dry and you maybe had a bit more flour than needed. Did you pack the measuring cups?
Then you did something wrong. When everyone else has great, delicious results, and one person doesn’t, it just stands to reason you messed up somewhere along the way. It happens to all of us now and then. But this is a great recipe just as written (though for variation, I do add 1/2 teaspoon of almond extract most of the time) and worth another try for you.
My cookies flattened out and didn’t stay rounded…what did I do wrong ?
Hi Susana, What gluten free flour blend did you use? Some have a higher starch content, and you probably needed to use more flour.
This recipe was amazing. Of course I don’t do a recipe straight up. I added 1/2 cup chopped pecan and 1/2 cup chopped cranberries to give it a holiday flare. When mixing the dough be sure to mix the dough for at least three minutes to get the dough to come together. Gluten free flour can be tricky. I buy whatever kind of flour that I can conveniently find, this time it was Pamala’s. Then add the pecans and cranberries if you are going that route. After baking definitely let them cool completely before rolling in powdered sugar. They are FRAGILE when hot.So good! I had no problems with high altitude.
Ooooh, I love the idea of adding chopped cranberries. Thank you so much. I am sure many readers will love to try that.
did you use fresh cranberries, chopped or dried?
Hi Connie, I don’t add cranberries, but you can if you use dried chopped cranberries.
Delicious, easy and they do melt in your mouth!
I am so glad you loved these cookies! Thank you so much.
Bake and then freeze? Or freeze unbaked?
I freeze them baked or as dough balls.
I replaced the vanilla with Almond extract. Soooooo good!
I am so glad you tried the almond extract. I am going to try it next!
These look great! Have you ever tried using coconut oil instead of butter?
Hi Rebecca, I haven’t tested an oil in this recipe.
These cookies were always my favorite pre-celiac, lucky to have my favorite Christmas treat! We have a Christmas Cookie Crew, and I refer to these as Snow Ball cookies for the kids in the crew, easy for them to make and yummy! Thank you!
I am so glad to bring back a good memory. Thank you so much for coming to let me know how much you enjoy the cookies.
Love making these cookies with the grandkids. Some don’t like nuts so we substitute Enjoy Life mini chips. We always make these on Christmas Eve for them to leave for Santa. I had tried so many GF recipes that were horrible and a waste of expensive ingredients. Thankfully I found you! I share them with others who need GF recipes. This was such a game changer because I knew nothing about gluten free! Thank you!
I love how you made this recipe with chocolate chips. It is so creative. I am glad you loved the recipe. Thank you.
I used Bobs Red Mill. Cookies definitely were VERY SHORT! Once cooled texture was great. Taste was excellent. I did 1.5 X the recipe. I will try substituting a small amount of oat flour as that should help the crumble issue. Using my multi shelf convection it took 12 mins for perfect cookies!!
Hi Martha, did you use Bob’s 1 to 1 or all purpose blend? Thank you!
The recipe does not say when to add the salt. With the flour? Also, I am assuming extra powdered sugar is needed beyond the 1/2 cup?
Hi Rachel, the salt goes in with the dry ingredients. I hope you enjoy them :-).
These cookies are notoriously crumbly. I used Cup 4 Cup GF flour and actually found them much LESS crumbly than most. Even less than the regular flour ones I make at Christmas. I did find that I had to cook them at least 20 minutes – they weren’t even close to being done at 10.
Thank you so much, Wendy. I haven’t used that flour blend in this recipe, it is interesting it took longer to bake.
My momalways made pineapple cookies. They were so good ive try a couple times never turn out good. Añy sugestión ? She made oatmeal rasin cookies nd molassae cookies. Never turn out good any sugestion for the pineapple cookies. My child hood favorite. I put recipe away when i fine it i will text it back to you. Oh she made molasse rasin cake. Very moist so good.
Hi Barb, those pineapple cookies sound delicious. Do you know if she used dried pineapple or fresh? I am wondering if the freeze-dried pineapple would work to recreate your cookies because you can crush it into a flour-like powder?
Mine stayed crumbly. I used everything you said and followed the recipe totally. Taste great but a crumbly mess.
Hi Dian, I haven’t heard this. What gluten free flour blend did you use?
How long can i store these? Also is it ok to roll in powdered sugar before baking as well as after?
Hi Lisa, These cookies should keep for 3 days. I am not sure about rolling before and after storing these because I haven’t needed to do this before. I would say give it a try and let us know how they turn out 🙂
I just tried these using Jules GF flour and they came out so crumbly that I couldn’t even pick them. Any suggestions for a
GF flour that is best for baking cookies??
Hi Cynthia. I looked up the gluten free flour you used and it has a LOT more starch content than the Bob’s Red Mill 1 to 1 blend I used to create this recipe. I think you will need to add more moisture if you are going to use Jules GF four for this recipe. Please stop back and let me know how it goes.
Can I use coconut oil for butter?
Hi Sara, You should be able to substitute coconut oil. Keep an eye on the the batter. You may need to use a little more flour. Let us know how they turned out 🙂
Hi. Can I use a 1 to 1 gluten free flour mix.
And I’m going to use pistachios.
I make non gf cookies all the time. But I’m trying to find more gf cookies to make for my sister.
Thank you.
Hi Michelle, I love that you want to make these for your sister. Pistachios should be fine, just grind them as finely as you can. As for a 1 to 1 gluten free blend, make sure it has Xanthan Gum in the blend. If it doesn’t you will want to add 1 teaspoon so the cookie ingredients bind together. Otherwise they will fall apart. Take care and happy holidays!
These are one of our families favorite Christmas cookies. I’ve recently had to go gluten free and gave these a try. I’m not sure what went wrong but they ended up going flat. I used mamas almond blend which has always yielded wonderful cookies. It does have xanthm gum it. I did let them chill for an hour before baking the first batch as most gf cookie recipes recommend.
Hi Cherie, Gluten free baking is like a chemistry experiment. I am not familiar with that brand and I don’t know the proportions of almond flour and other ingredients. I know this recipe works with the Bob’s Red Mill 1 to 1 GF Flour blend. I am really sorry this recipe didn’t work with this flour.
Could I use refined coconut oil for butter? Or what substitue is good to make it vegan?
Hi Sara, I haven’t tried it, but I suspect it would be fine. You may want to use less and test how it holds up before adding the full amount.
Please let me know how it turns out so other readers can see. Thank you 🙂
I am so glad you posted this recipe. This kind of cookie is my all time favorite because they just melt in your mouth. I haven’t made them in a long long time. I do use 1/2 whole wheat flour & splenda alternative in mine to make them a little more diabetic friendly for myself. I also only use 1 stick of margarine it is the low fat type.
I like that you have a delicious healthy version that you like 🙂