African American Old Fashioned Tea Cakes
This recipe for Southern Tea Cakes is a very old recipe, handed downwardly from 1 generation to another. Its origins, a remarkably deep history with the African American community.
Pivot Southern Tea Cakes
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This recipe and today's post is in memory of Miss Ada. Give thanks you for the gift of your recipe and the Blessing of your friendship.
An African American Tea Cakes History and The Southern Tea Cookies Nosotros Enjoy Today
Former fashioned Southern Tea Cakes. They are easy to find here in Charleston at the Market downtown, whatever of the plantation restaurants, and on many a southern caterer'due south menu of offerings.
Southern Living Magazine says these 'very vanilla' cookies are about the easiest of southern recipes, and one that has thankfully non been lost to time. Southern Tea Cakes are thought to have originated out of necessity. That they may have been an enslaved African cooks version of an English tea block.
Southern tea cakes may accept evolved from the English tea cake which is a light, sugariness, yeast-based bun with dried fruits. With limited supplies back and then, enslaved Africans fabricated their ain version of tea cakes based on what was readily available.
At the finish of slavery, but with the southern states nonetheless refusing to uphold emancipation and the freedom and condom it was to have provided, thousands migrated North. Some did not end until they reached Canada. Southern foods crafted and perfected by enslaved Africans at present fleeing were largely abandoned and left backside. To no surprise, families wanted to begin new lives as gratuitous persons of color and leave behind reminders of generations of enslavement.
Southern style tea cakes have likely changed a flake since the 1860s and before. That is because our food supply has changed. We have access to flours of all kinds to include self rising, all purpose, and likewise breadstuff flour. Blistering ingredients as humble every bit vanilla extract and even stick butter are tens times more sophisticated that both my and your Grandma even knew.
Todays tea cake recipe I promise yous volition find relaxing and even enjoyable to bake. 8 basic ingredients , null 'fancy,' and honestly, aside from mayhap the buttermilk, everything likely already in plain sight in your kitchen.
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I am breaking with tradition and glazing my Southern Tea Cakes with Royal Icing and festive sugar pearls. The tea cake is FANTASTIC before Majestic Icing, but becomes a true Christmas care for in one case glazed and busy.
I have taken liberties to some extent. I will explain why before the barrage of comments damning me for these not being "true tea cakes." And then hither goes…my family unit LOVES these cookies. I mean to say, 50 O V Due east S. And, because it'due south Christmas and I include Southern Tea Cakes in my cookie gift tins, in lieu of the traditional round or pinked rounds Southern Tea Cakes are familiar to us as, I use holiday cookie cutters and do shapes.
I as well get together a very fast batch of Majestic Icing and bust out the carbohydrate dust and sugar pearls to decorate. One batch of this one-time fashioned tea cookie dough yields between six and viii dozen cookies depending on the size of the cookie cutters you use. If yous plan on two″ rounds or pinked rounds, have a programme for gifting considering you lot are going to be in cookie crisis if y'all call back you're going to swallow them all lonely. Simply sayin'.
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This recipe for Southern Tea Cakes is very sometime, handed down from one generation to another, its origins steeped in African American history.
I reserve a full twenty-four hour period for Southern Tea Cakes. That is to say, I do not plan to bake or mix whatsoever other staff of life or tassie or cookie recipe on the 24-hour interval I reserve for these. They are not difficult. They just take a scrap of time because I like to use cookie cutters with a bit of intricacy and I ever plan on Imperial Icing.
I bust my wearisome cooker out and toss in a previously prepared and frozen batch of my Amazing Swedish Meatballs in Creamy Gravy to practise the 'slow thing' until it's time for supper. Every blistering sail I own is lined upwards on my kitchen table and I line each with parchment paper. If you have silpats to fit your cookie sheets, use them, but know that parchment newspaper is doable and works nifty.
This recipe calls for both baking powder AND baking soda. You MUST accept both on hand. One may not exist substituted for the other in larger quantity. The recipe will fail.
You may too use any flavor extract you lot like. I take experimented with lemon, mint, violet, almond, and even banana. I prefer vanilla excerpt over anything else I have tried. If you do not take vanilla extract, 1 one-half a vanilla bean scraped may exist substituted. I am providing a link herein to the vanilla I utilise if you are inclined to want to use it besides.
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You will feel like you are correct in the South subsequently making and serving Southern Tea Cakes.
What are some tips for working with dough for tea cakes?
Work on a consistently lightly floured surface, as this dough is gluey once it warms. I flour my pin and the blade of my bench scraper and spatulas likewise. After chilling, I cut the dough in half, and then each half in half again. I work with ane quarter of the dough at a time, returning the other quarters to the refrigerator to remain cold until I am prepared to ringlet and cut them.
As I make full each baking canvass with cutouts, I continue in mind that all tea cake recipes are very clear in that Y'all MUST SPACE THE CAKES OUT. Like, by several inches each. I probably do not become whatsoever more than 5 to six cutouts on a blistering sheet.
I as well chill the sheets with the cutouts ready to get until the batch before them is out of the oven. These bake anywhere from 9 to 11 minutes depending on your oven. Personally, I would monitor the starting time batch for browning on the bottoms and spacing. This way, you lot know what Not to do for the next bunch going in.
Oh, and PREHEAT OVEN. The oven MUST be to temperature when the baking canvass goes in. Call back, the bake is brusque, and then every degree counts.
A Traditional Southern tea cakes recipe makes what starts out a simple saccharide cookie, only finishes more a cake-like texture and gustation.
You will detect MANY a recipe for southern tea cake cookies all over the cyberspace. The Southern Living tea block recipe is fantastic. Only, I like mine ameliorate. The Pioneer Woman tea cakes are fabled, too. I still like mine better. I take even followed a method for southern tea cakes with molasses, but… this one is the best. It is an easy tea cake recipe, and a quick tea block recipe. I personally think information technology to be the best tea block recipe. WHY?
This 100 twelvemonth old tea cake recipe was given to me past the mother of a close friend. It was given to me the bound before she passed abroad. She was built-in and raised in Yemassee, South Carolina. She was the eighth of twelve children in an African American household located on a former rice plantation. Her male parent was a planter for the family who owned the land. Her mother was a melt for the aforementioned family for over twoscore years. In her words, "homemade tea cakes start with dearest and end with a full belly." This recipe and today's post is in memory of Miss Ada.
All images and text ©Jenny DeRemer for Not Entirely Average, LLC
Servings: 72 cookies, two″ round
Calories:
Want a bigger or smaller serving size? Hover over the serving size and movement the bar until y'all go the number of servings you want. Easy.
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parchment paper or silpats
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cookie sheets
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Rolling Pin
Did you know that it's super like shooting fish in a barrel to print out a version of a half recipe or even a double recipe on Not Entirely Boilerplate ? Hover over the serving size (highlighted in blue, information technology says 72 on this recipe) and then slide the the white line to the left to make less or to the right to make more. This "estimator" allows you to play until you get the number of servings you desire. Easy.
Ingredients for Southern Tea Cakes
- iv cups flour
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 2 teaspoons blistering pulverisation
- two cups sugar
- two large eggs
- 1/2 loving cup buttermilk
- 1/ii pound butter 2 sticks, salted or unsalted, softened to room temperature
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract any extract may be substituted
OPTIONAL
for Royal Icing
- 3 one/2 cups powdered sugar
- 4 extra large egg whites NOTE** Must be pasteurized eggs
- ane teaspoon vanilla extract
- food coloring optional
The Method
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Preheat oven to 350 °F.
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Line several cookie sheets with parchment newspaper or silpats. Set aside.
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In a large bowl sift flour, blistering soda and baking powder together. Add together remaining ingredients and blend well. Dough will exist very soft and somewhat sticky.
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On a floured surface shape the dough into a disk, cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for i 60 minutes. Remove from refrigeration and cut deejay into four equal quarters. Re-wrap and air-condition 3 or the 4 quarters, working with one at a time.
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Flour surface over again and roll dough out until approximately 1/iv inch thick.
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Cutting dough into desired shapes and broil on prepared baking sheets for 9 to xi minutes, monitoring for browning bottoms and acceptable spacing.
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This recipe makes about 6 to 8 dozen tea cakes based on two" rounds. If using larger cutouts and shapes, plan for fewer cookies.
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Southern Tea Cakes are traditionally not glazed but they absolutely make fantastically decorated Christmas cookies. Follow my easy recipe for Royal Icing if you desire to decorate your tea cakes.
for Imperial Icing
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Sift 3 one/two cups powdered sugar through a fine-mesh strainer into a big bowl.
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Place 4 big pasteurized egg whites (or 1/ii cup liquid egg whites) in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a whisk attachment. (Alternatively, employ an electric hand mixer and large bowl.)
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Whip on medium-high speed until foamy, doubled in book, and opaque, most 2 minutes.
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Plow the mixer off and add half of the powdered carbohydrate. Mix on depression speed until the powdered sugar is completely dissolved and no large lumps remain, i to ii minutes. Add together the remaining powdered sugar and continue mixing until completely dissolved, 1 to two minutes more.
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Increase the mixer speed to high and whip until the icing is completely smooth, glossy, and slightly thickened, iv to 5 minutes. The icing should concord a soft height and slowly run off of the whisk attachment. If the icing is too loose, add more powdered sugar, 1/iv cup at a time, and continue mixing until completely incorporated.
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Decrease the mixer speed to depression and add one teaspoon extract and a few drops of nutrient coloring, if desired. Mix until the icing is polish and evenly colored, i to 2 minutes.
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Decorate cookies with the icing by piping and let completely dry before touching them, at to the lowest degree 4 hours.
Please note that the nutrition information provided above is approximate and meant every bit a guideline merely.
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