Russian Tea Biscuits

I've posted this recipe before to other journals, I'm sure, and it's basically a slight variation on the ur-Recipe that is all over the internet, but I'm still going to post it.

These are not the powdered sugar Christmas cookie that goes by various probably-inaccurate country names (Russian tea cakes/Mexican wedding cookies). Instead, they're a fist-size breakfast pastry most closely resembling a hulked-out rugelach. And they're basically a Cleveland thing -- every coffee shop had them, growing up, and most groceries had their terrible rendition. As far as I can tell, no one is quite sure how they ended up named "Russian", except perhaps that it indicated raspberry somehow.


( Recipe and more pictures )