What’s often referred to as Old-Fashioned Southern Tea Cakes is a reference that I’ve seen many times in my collection of southern cookbooks. They never interested me since they seemed like such old-lady cookies, the kind perched on the edge of a cup and saucer of tea. I’m not a tea drinker, though I realize that pairing the cookie with it is more a state of mind than a definitive combination.
Tea cakes
For about a week I had a big ole chocolate pound cake on the counter, one which I made for dessert at a dinner last weekend to serve with the remaining homemade coffee ice cream I had on hand. By the way, coffee ice cream and chocolate cake are a great combination.
But let me tell you about how wonderful these little tea cakes can be because I finally whipped up a batch after the last crumb of pound cake was gone.
At first I hesitated to make them because the ingredients seemed so plain: butter, sugar, flour, baking powder, egg and vanilla extract—very basic but not riveting.
I researched tea cakes from the many recipes on hand, both in my books and on the internet. There is a wide range of methods for these little gems. Most are derived from family recipes, region to region in the south. And most instruct to make a thick sweet dough that’s rolled out and cut with a cookie cutter into 2 inch rounds to bake on cookie sheets for 10 to 12 minutes or until set in the center, lightly colored and crisp around the edges.
For starters, I chose a simple recipe using the above-mentioned ingredients. The dough is scooped out into 2-inch round balls rolled in your hand; it’s messy and I think chilling the dough for 10 minutes makes the job easier.
Though the recipe I used called for coating the cookie sheet with baking spray, I chose to grease the pan with butter instead, re-greasing with each batch baked. The result is a fabulous crispy-edged, fluffy cookie. The only flavoring was vanilla extract, but a drop of almond extract or pure lemon extract would work well too. These cookies are often topped with a sugar coating, flavored with nutmeg and sometimes coated with a simple icing.
The cookies are ideal to serve with ice cream, with or without a cup of tea alongside. Strawberry, peach or vanilla ice cream would be perfect. Or just pile them high on a domed cake stand or fill a cookie jar and you’ll find yourself swiping one just because they’re so addictive, as irresistible as the best chocolate chip cookie–a good palliative to the gnawing ignominy of the Trump presidency!
Tea cakes
Ingredients
- 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature
- 1 cup (198 grams) sugar
- 2 eggs, at room temperature, beaten
- 1 slightly overflowing teaspoon of vanilla extract
- 3 cups (360 grams) all-purpose flour
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- Sugar, to sprinkle
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Grease a large cookie sheet with butter, applying more butter for each batch.
- In the large bowl of a stand mixer cream the butter and sugar at medium-high speed until fluffy and well combined.
- Add the eggs and beat at medium-high speed until combined; add the vanilla extract. The dough will look somewhat grainy. That’s OK.
- In another bowl mix the flour and baking powder, whisking together until combined. Add to the butter-sugar mixture, mixing in on low speed until well combined. Chill the dough for about 10 minutes to firm up slightly.
- Scoop out with a spoon enough dough to roll out by hand into 2-inch balls. Place at least 1 inch apart on the greased cooking sheet and bake for about 12 minutes or until set in the middle, the tops lightly colored and the edges crispy.
- Let rest on the sheet for 1 minute and then remove with a spatula to a cookie sheet to cool, optionally sprinkling the tops with white sugar or demerara sugar while still warm.
- Store in a cookie jar or domed cake plate.
Notes
Adapted from the BTC Old-Fashioned Grocery Cookbook. Instead of using a baking spray as instructed in the original recipe, greasing the cookie sheet with butter, applying after each batch; this will give the cookies a nice crispy edge.
