Southern Tea Cakes, Updated

I posted a tea cake recipe a couple years ago but felt it needed an update!

Many recipes you will find use self rising flour. I personally don’t use a ton of specialty flours so I like that this one uses good ol’ all purpose flour. This recipe is incredibly simple. I almost always have the ingredients in my pantry/ fridge and love that these aren’t as sweet as a typical sugar cookie.

Now my nana, and my great grandma used to either roll out the dough and press circles out with a cutter or individually roll each cookie. I guess I’m lazy, because I love a good cookie scoop. That’s why mine won’t have the smooth top or pretty edges traditionally seen on southern tea cakes. My mom and aunts always talk about who made the best tea cakes in the family. Then they  proceed to ask if anyone got the recipe before she passed away. They always joke that she was stingy about sharing it and took it to the grave.

I have done my best to recreate what I think is the most delicious tea cake recipes possible. With the critical opinions of my grandmother, mom, and aunts, I’m sure this can bring up a little nostalgia.

If you’re unfamiliar with tea cakes I’ll do my best to describe them. They are soft, warm, tender pieces of your past. They aren’t sweet like a sugar cookie. They are the perfect amount of sweetness to encourage you to eat three or four in one sitting. The middle is always soft and the edges never brown. I promise its worth the try!

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Texas Tea Cakes

Prep 10 mins

Cook 20 mins

Total 30 mins

Author Marissa Allen

These are soft, warm, tender pieces of your past. They aren’t sweet like a sugar cookie. They are the perfect amount of sweetness to encourage you to eat three or four in one sitting. The middle is always soft and the edges never brown.

Ingredients

• 4 C Flour
• 2 C Sugar
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1 C Unsalted Butter, softened
• 2 eggs
• 1/2 C milk
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 1/2 tsp of lemon extract
• 1 tbsp lemon zest

Instructions

1. Cream together butter and sugar.
2. Add in the eggs one at a time. Stir in the vanilla and lemon extract as well as the lemon zest.
3. Stir in the milk.
4. In a medium bowl, combine flour, baking soda, and baking powder. Add that to the wet ingredients in increments. The dough will be stickier than traditional cookie dough. DON’T FRET!
5. Preheat the oven to 325 degrees. Chill the dough for at least two hours. If you don’t, the cookies will melt into a glob in the oven.
6. Bake for 18-20 minutes. When you remove them from the oven they will look slightly underdone and smooth on the top. Let them cool on a baking rack if available.