Normally I have a pretty good idea of what most of the new recipes I work on should look like and how they are supposed to taste. Well, this recipe turned out to be nowhere near normal. Shocking right?

Let me just start from the beginning. I get a simple message from a fellow baker that reads, “Do you know how to make Tea Cakes?” and me just being me, I almost reply with “I bet I can figure it out.” But before I type a single letter, my brain kicks into gear and I realize I have never even seen a tea cake before, much less tasted one!

So after I reined my ego in, I wrote, ”No, I don’t, but I can try to find somebody who does.” I really figured saying that would buy me plenty of time and I would look into it at my leisure. Fat chance, big boy! My friend replied back with a quickness, “Oh Andy, thank you so much! my neighbor lady is really old and when I was checking in on her, we got to talking about the good ole days and she asked me if I would bake her some tea cakes like her Mama used to make when she was a child. I’m really not sure where to start.”

Well, daggum it, I’m in too far to make a long story short so please indulge me and read on.

The first thing I figured I needed to do was to find a picture of one. I found 16 images of tea cakes and you guessed it – no two even remotely matched. The same thing happened when I read recipes – some sounded like cookies, others would have turned out to be cakes. To be quite honest, I did not have a clue what to do next. I was about ready to throw in the towel and move on but I just didn’t feel right about doing that to that sweet old lady.

So I decided to talk to the one person I knew that could help me if anyone could, my mother-in-law (Granny) and it was like hitting the tea cake lottery. She said “Oh yes, I remember making those right after the depression!” Well, that’s all it took for me. I was on the edge of my seat, pencil in hand. She continued, ”We didn’t have much money back then and those little tea cakes were such a treat.”

Using her thumb and forefinger as a measuring tool, she said, “They need to be rolled this thick and I always use a round can to cut them with.” She went on to tell me, ”They need to be slightly crunchy on the outside but tender and cake-like in the middle and not to sweet.”

I baked her a batch and she said they were perfect. I shared this recipe with my baking friend, she made some for her neighbor lady and that sweet lady said they were just like she remembered them. Yeah, I would say this is a keeper.

Granny took a long while telling me all about tea cakes and I will never be able to thank her enough so I will share the recipe with you and hope you share this with someone you love.

[recipe title=”Old Fashioned Tea Cakes” servings=”4 dozen” time=”13 hours (12 for chilling)” difficulty=”Medium”]

Ingredients

• 1 cups butter room temperature
• 2 ½ cups sugar plus extra for sprinkling
• 3 eggs
• 5 cups all- purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 tablespoon buttermilk
• 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

Directions

Whisk together flour and baking soda in a bowl and set aside. Cream together butter and sugar. Add eggs one at a time, mixing after each addition. Scrape bowl down. Add buttermilk and vanilla and mix on slow until fully incorporated. Continue mixing and slowly add flour mixture scraping down bowl as needed just until no flour is visible in dough. Transfer dough into plastic wrap, making sure to completely cover and chill for several hours or overnight.

Preheat oven to 400°. Unwrap dough, cut into 2 equal pieces, rewrap one and place back in refrigerator. Place remaining piece on a well- floured piece of waxed paper. Dust the top of dough with flour and roll to a thickness of ¼” with a floured rolling pin. Sprinkle top lightly with sugar, using a medium to large biscuit cutter, cut out teacakes and place on a well-greased cookie sheet. Bake 7 to 9 minutes. Remove from oven and allow to cool completely on cookie sheet. Repeat with second piece of dough.

Cooking notes

The dough is extremely sticky and cannot be worked until completely chilled. Any surface that comes in contact with dough will stick.  Almost any fruit or nut extract works well in the place of vanilla.

[/recipe]