Mississippi Tea Cakes Recipes

DEEP SOUTH OLD FASHIONED TEA CAKES

Steps:

• In a large bowl cream together butter and shortening until creamy.
• Mix in sugar until well combined.
• Mix in egg.
• Mix in lemon zest and vanilla bean paste. Set aside.
• In a medium bowl, sift together flour, baking powder, salt, and nutmeg.
• Mix the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients, alternating with the buttermilk.
• Turn dough onto a smooth surface and knead until dough is soft.
• Shape into a disk and cover with plastic wrap.
• Refrigerate for 1 hour (or freeze for 30 minutes)
• Preheat oven to 350 F.
• Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper. Set aside.
• Remove dough from fridge and plastic wrap.
• Knead dough to soften it.
• Roll dough to 1/4-inch thick.( I rolled the dough on parchment to prevent sticking)
• Use a round cookie cutter to cut out circle shapes.
• Place cookies on prepared pan about 2 inches apart. (see note)
• Bake for 8-10 minutes until bottoms are lightly golden. (see note)
• Remove from pan and place on cooling rack to finish cooling.
• Once cooled store in airtight container.

BLACK FOLKS SOUTHERN TEA CAKE RECIPE

Steps:

• Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
• In a medium-size bowl, use an electric mixer to combine the butter, granulated sugar, and brown sugar for about 2 minutes until creamy.
• Add the egg, lemon zest, sour cream, mayonnaise, evaporated milk, and vanilla extract.
• Mix until well blended to make the tea cake batter.
• Sift together the remaining dry ingredients: flour, baking powder, salt, and nutmeg over a sheet of parchment paper large enough to fit your baking sheet.
• Fold the parchment paper to pour the sifted flour mixture into the tea cake batter and then mix again.
• Add the batter to a lightly floured surface and roll the dough to approx ¼ inch thickness. This is where the extra cup of flour will come in handy to help with rolling because the dough is sticky!
• Cut out the tea cakes with a 2 ½" up to 3″ biscuit cutter. (I used a 2 ¾" biscuit cutter.)
• Place the rounds onto a parchment paper-lined baking sheet about one inch apart. (You may need to bake more than 1 batch if all your rounds don't fit on your baking sheet.)
• Bake until light brown (but don't let them get too brown!). 5-6 minutes in the conventional oven and 3-4 minutes in the Instant Pot Omni Plus oven. (Tea cakes don't take long to bake, so keep a close eye on them to avoid burning! Like a biscuit, you want them firm on the outside and fluffy on the inside.)
• Optional: When the tea cakes are finished baking and cooling, optionally make the lemon glaze frosting by combining the powdered sugar and lemon juice.
• Mix well with a whisk to remove any lumps from the powdered sugar.
• Use a small spatula or spoon to drop a dollop of icing onto each cooled tea cake. The icing will harden in about 5 minutes.
• Optionally, garnish this Southern Black folk tea cake recipe with a sprinkle of lemon zest, then serve and enjoy!

GRANDMA'S OLD FASHIONED TEA CAKES

Steps:

• In a medium bowl, cream together the butter and sugar until smooth. Beat in the eggs one at a time, then stir in the vanilla. Combine the flour, baking soda, salt and nutmeg; stir into the creamed mixture. Knead dough for a few turnns on a floured board until smooth. Cover and refrigerate until firm.
• 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 cookie sheets.
• Bake for 8 to 10 minutes in the preheated oven. Allow cookies to cool on baking sheet for 5 minutes before removing to a wire rack to cool completely.