Tea Cakes

Unassuming though they might look, Southern Tea Cakes are special cookies. It’s said that these sweet little cake-like cookies were served at tea parties hosted by Juliette Gordon Low in her efforts to form the Girl Scouts of America. Leave it to Southerners to create an empire out of butter and sugar. Make a pot of tea for two and nibble on these soft, cakey cookies lightly scented with nutmeg.

If you've never heard of tea cakes, you should know exactly what you're dealing with. Tea cakes are soft roll-out cookies that are tender, chewy and pleasantly dense. They are a cookie with a cake-like texture. The ingredients are very simple (flour, sugar, butter, milk, nutmeg, and eggs), and the gentle flavor of nutmeg is what makes these so special.

I first came across tea cakes in Southern Living magazine, and gave them a try one holiday season. I'm happy to report that we make these year after year, because they're simplicity makes them so approachable yet still delicious.

We typically make these around Christmas time, because they're so great with hot cocoa or a warm mug of tea. My gingerbread latte and a chai hot chocolate are some of our favorite drinks to serve alongside.

The Ingredients

Southern tea cakes have simple ingredients, so be sure to use high-quality butter and ensure your nutmeg is freshly grated.

• Butter. When baking, I reach for European-style butter, because it has less water and slightly more fat. I explain this in my puff pastry recipe post very well.
• Sugar. Plain, white granulated sugar is all we need.
• Vanilla. Always bake with pure vanilla extract, not imitation vanilla. In simple recipes with very few ingredients, the flavor of the vanilla really shines. Also, vanilla extract makes things taste sweeter without any additional sugar.
• Egg Yolks. We only need the egg yolks, not the egg whites. Separate two eggs, and save the egg whites for other things, like my baked Pumpkin Donut Holes.
• Milk. A very small amount of milk (just one teaspoon) makes this dough soft and cake-like, rather than crisp like a cookie. The extra egg yolk does the same thing.
• Flour. The best way to measure all-purpose flour for baking is to fluff it with a spoon, scoop the cup into the flour, and then scrape off the surface with a butter knife.
• Salt.
• Baking Soda.
• Nutmeg. These tea cakes have a sprinkling of sugar and freshly grated nutmeg on top before baking, and it is the key to their incredible flavor. If possible, try to use fresh whole nutmeg that you grate fresh on a microplane.

How to Make Southern Tea Cakes

This dough comes together quickly in one bowl using a hand-held mixer, and then it is rolled out and cut into perfect circles. The cookie cutter is the key to the iconic perfect circle shape of the tea cake.

Equipment

This Southern tea cakes cookie recipe requires a few standard baking tools.

• Hand Mixer for bringing the cookie dough together.
• Microplane for grating the fresh nutmeg on top.
• Small Rolling Pin for rolling out the dough before cutting out the circle shapes.
• Circle cookie cutter set, though you can always use a water glass to keep things super simple! For the tea cakes in the photos, I use the 2.5-inch size circle cutter.

Storage

Since these are holiday cookies, you should know that they are great when made in advance! However, they need to be stored in an airtight container so that they can stay fresh for up to 5 days. You can make and freeze the dough in advance at the dough chill step, but let it rest at room temperature until it's soft enough to roll out and cut circles. You can freeze already baked cookies months in advance, and then let them thaw at room temperature before serving.

Questions about Tea Cakes: