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.
