Favorite Old Fashion Tea Cakes Recipe
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Soft, lightly sweet, and full of nostalgia, old-fashioned tea cakes are a classic Southern treat. Perfect with coffee or tea, these simple cookies bring back homemade comfort in every bite.
I know I’ll cry before finishing this Favorite Old Fashion Tea Cakes recipe for you. It has such sweet memories for me of my great-grandmother.
As a little bitty girl, I remember standing on a chair in my Mawmaw’s kitchen helping her make Favorite Old Fashion Tea Cakes Recipe. She was one of the sweetest ladies I’ve ever known; God-fearing, patient, always encouraging, never had an unkind word to say about anyone, always had a warm hug for her great-granddaughter.
Because she lived in the age where ladies didn’t work, she was always home and took care of my brother and me before we were old enough to go to school. She played I Spy for hours sitting in her living room. We played baseball with balls she made out of yarn or fabric scraps. She made glue out of flour and water! I didn’t know you could make glue; I thought it was something you only bought in the white bottle with the orange top!
Other than the time we buried the cat alive, we always had a great time with Mawmaw. (We got into a little trouble for the cat incident. It is the only time I can remember her being upset or raising her voice!)
But my favorite by far was making these cookies.
Favorite Old Fashion Tea Cakes recipe
They are thin and crisp and the perfect buttery bite. She was so patient with me mixing and measuring and teaching me how to do it just so. She insisted on sifting the flour three times. This recipe always makes me think of those fun times.
I hope you enjoy this recipe as much as I have over the years. Additionally, I hope you go make memories baking them with someone you love. Those memories will last a lifetime. I know.
Do you have a special recipe that you made with someone when you were younger?
Favorite Old Fashion Tea Cakes
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Ingredients
- 1 cup butter at room temperature
- 2 cup granulated sugar
- 2 large eggs
- 1 Tablespoon whole milk
- 1 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg or lemon
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- 4 cups all purpose flour My Mawmaw was very specific about the flour being sifted 3 times!
- 2 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
Instructions
- Cream butter and sugar, add eggs one at a time mixing well after each addition. Add milk, nutmeg or lemon, and vanilla. In another bowl sift flour, baking powder and salt together and combine with other wet ingredients.
- Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F (165 degrees C).
- On a lightly floured surface, roll the dough out to 1/4 inch in thickness. Cut into desired shapes with cookie cutters. Place cookies 1 1/2 inches apart onto ungreased cookie sheets. Bakein oven at 325 degrees for 8 to 10 minutes. Allow cookies to cool on baking sheet for 3 minutes before removing to a wire rack to cool completely.
- Cook time will depend on how large and thick you cut the cookies. For crisp cookies, roll as thinly as you can. Transfer the cut cookies to the cookie sheet using a thin spatula. These cookies won't get golden brown. They'll be ready with the edges turn slightly brown and they do not appear shiny but more of a matte finish in the center of the cookie.
Nutrition
Nutritional information given is an automatic calculation and can vary based on the exact products you use and changes you make to the recipe. If these numbers are important to you, I recommend calculating them yourself.
My mother’s family was very poor when she was growing up. She said Nanny (her mom) would make tea cakes and put them in a flour sack hanging on the wall. Mom always loved the smell when she opened the door and would immediately raid that flour sack. We’ve never been able to find Nanny’s recipe, so I think I’ll give this one a whirl! Thanks.
I hope it’s close to your Nanny’s. What sweet memories we have associated with food.
Do these come out like the thicker/softer ones or the thin/firm ones?
thin and crisp
My mom made these and cut them in 3” cookies, and sandwiched them with fudge,for our school lunches. They worked great for bartering. LOL
Going to try your recipe it sounds so good. My mother would make tea cakes and they were wonderful. My grandmother (my father’s mother ) would make these if she new we were coming to see her. Miss my mother and grandmother so much.
My Great grandmother made them for us too. But she lived next door, I love tea cakes just because of her.
I can’t wait to try your way of making your Mawmaw’s tea cakes. My Grandmother always made tea cakes if she knew someone was comming. I know it was a simple recipe and that she cut them out with the rim of a glass. They were the best, odd shaped and a little brown around the edges. My Mother and I have tried and tried to figure out how she made them but we never quite get it right. Maybe you have the secret!
please clarify ’cause it does make a difference . . . do you measure the 4 cups of flour before or after you sift 3x??
Yes, it makes a huge difference. Always measure the flour AFTER you sift it. What I do is scoop a lot more than I thnk I need, sift it, then measure. Also, use a spoon to spoon the flour into your measuring utensil then level with a knife.
Thank you
Paula: My Mema was family-renowned for her fried chicken and buttermilk biscuits, but my favorite was the fresh-from-the-oven crisp she called her “Tea cakes.” I suspect half my delight was eating a cookie from the OVEN rather than a box, but she was always amazed at my level of joy. She’d say, “Why, they’re just my old tea cakes.” They were brown and crisp on the edges, light and just-sweet. Hers were not uniformly shaped, however, so I’m wondering if they were rolled or dropped rather than cut with a cookie cutter. Any ideas?
P.S. She read her Bible, baked the morning biscuits, prepared grits, scrambled eggs, cereal, and coffee, cleaned the house, and then went to her shift at the cotton mill. The gentlest, kindest soul I ever met.