I was in for a big surprise when my podcast guest, Stefani Renee shared her Granny Octavia's old fashioned Southern tea cakes with us! I was picturing light, airy, delicate little miniature cakes. So when I started reading the instructions and got to "roll out the dough", I was shocked! Looking back at the ingredients a little more closely, I notice the flour-to-butter ratio was 1.5 cups to 1 stick - not so cake-like at all! Tea cakes are, according to Stefani, a marriage between cakes and cookies, with just a little bit of biscuit thrown in, if you drop the batter onto a pan, rather than rolling and cutting it.
However you categorize them, this recipe for tea cakes results in a soft, crumbly, elegant texture that can carry any flavor you choose. Stefani's Granny Octavia usually went for the most simple and refined - plain vanilla. We chose to add in some of Stefani's ideas - orange zest in one batch and cardamom in another. Truthfully, with a basic recipe like this, you simply can't go wrong!
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Old Fashioned Southern Tea Cakes Recipe
- Total Time: 1 hour 10 minutes
- Yield: 8 servings 1x
Description
Southern Tea Cakes are soft, buttery, and crumbly – much more cookie than cake. This recipe is basic and endlessly adaptable.
Ingredients
Southern Tea Cakes
- 1 stick Butter, softened
- 1 Tbsp Shortening (this is optional but lends to the texture)
- 1/2 cup +1 tablespoon Granulated sugar (traditionally these are not as sweet as cookies, however, if you want it a little sweeter you can bump up to 3/4 cup
- 2 teaspoons Vanilla or scrape a whole vanilla bean (I like using vanilla bean and seeing the little flecks)
- 1 large Egg, room temperature
- 1 1/2 cups All-purpose flour (+ 1 tablespoon)
- 1 teaspoon Baking powder
- pinch of Salt
- 2 tablespoons Buttermilk
Add ins
- Traditional tea cakes are super simple but you can add in other flavors
- Bourbon, Rum, almond extract: swap out 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
- Lemon or orange: 1tablespoon lemon zest and swap out 1/2 teaspoon vanilla for 1/2 teaspoon lemon juice
- Cardamom: 1/8 teaspoon
- Pecans or other nuts: 1/2 cup
- Molasses: swap 1 tablespoon of sugar for 1 tablespoon molasses
Instructions
- In a bowl sift flour, baking powder, and salt, and set to the side. Using a standup or hand mixer, cream butter and shortening until fluffy. Mix in sugar until combined. Add in vanilla and egg until combined. Add in half of the flour mixture and mix for a few seconds, then scrape down the sides. Add in buttermilk and the remainder of the flour mixture and mix until combined. You don’t want to over-mix, it should only take a few seconds to combine.
- Turn out the dough onto a sheet of plastic wrap. The dough will be sticky. Form dough into a 2 inch disk, wrap, and refrigerate for at least an hour or freeze for 30 minutes. You want your dough to be very cold to prevent spreading.
- Preheat oven to 325 and line the baking sheet.
- Remove from the refrigerator and roll the dough until about 1/4 inch thick. I don’t like to flour my surface or rolling pin because I think it dries out the dough. Try rolling on parchment paper. Cut dough into the desired shape. I use a large biscuit cutter.
- Place tea cakes on a baking sheet and bake 9-11 minutes. Let cool on the baking sheet for 1-2 minutes then finish cooling on a rack. Tea cakes don’t rise they’ll look about the same as when you put them in the oven. Also, the color stays a bit the same, you know they’re done when the edges/bottoms turn slightly golden.
Notes
Make sure to listen to Stefani on The Storied Recipe Podcast, Granny Octavia’s Tea Cakes while you make her Tea Cakes recipe!
- Prep Time: 1 hour
- Cook Time: 10 minutes
- Category: Baking, Cookies
- Cuisine: Southern Cooking
Nutrition
- Calories: 263
- Sugar: 13
- Sodium: 157
- Fat: 14
- Saturated Fat: 8
- Carbohydrates: 31
- Fiber: 1
- Protein: 3
- Cholesterol: 54
Would love to hear from you!