Southern Tea Cakes - made June 5, 2016, recipe from Dianne Vickers
Although I have a backlog of posts to put up, I'm blogging out of order to address a recent issue. My blog posts occasionally get featured on the
Stir It Up! food page of the Christian Science Monitor and last week, they had included
my post on
Southern Tea Cakes. There’s an option for readers to provide
feedback which then gets forwarded to the blogger. One such feedback I received
from the post had a very negative reaction as a Southerner took exception to my interpretation of what a Southern Tea Cake was like,
claiming I had “killed these” (not in the millennial slang sense) and that my
picture was “nothing like a large, soft cookie which is what our Tea Cake is
suppose [sic] to be. Why would you tell people to roll it in a ball and freeze
it and lump it up like this? Just make up your own recipe and name it something
else rather than using a long named, part of a long well loved recipe and try
making it into something it is not.” The reader admitted to being a “hater of
people missing [sic] around with my Southern Traditions” and went on to agree
with my admittance of not being from the South and never having heard of
Southern Tea Cakes with an emphatic “OBVIOUSLY”.
I will admit to being taken aback at the vehemence greeted
by a cookie post, a recipe that I had found on pinterest and made according to
the original blogger’s post and naming convention (as opposed to creating it on
my own and subverting the name). I will further admit my initial reaction would
not have done credit to my West Coast upbringing, my Filipino-American
heritage or my Christian religion. Fortunately, one or all three factors
prevailed and stifled the knee-jerk impulse to respond to dislike with further dislike. That accomplishes nothing but to breed more ill will and wouldn't honor my values.
My second, more pragmatic reaction was to think what a
shame this person missed a teaching opportunity to educate me and others on
what a real Southern Tea Cake is, obviously something important enough to her
to write in and give her opinion. I
am teachable and when I make an
error, I not only want to find out about it but I also would like to know how
to do it correctly so that the error doesn’t continue and won’t be further
propagated by me or anyone else.
Fortunately, someone commented on the post directly on my
blog, also informing me my version of the Southern Tea Cake wasn’t what she,
Dianne V, grew up with but she didn’t stop there and instead helpfully
supplied her Grandmother’s recipe which she said was very old and welcomed me to try it. In addition, a
personal friend, Melvina, who’s also from the South, passed along her mother’s
recipe to me after I related the story. I decided to try Dianne’s recipe first
and that’s what you see pictured here. I did halve it since I didn’t need so
many cookies. Turns out I portioned it a bit generously since my half recipe
only yielded just over a dozen cookies whereas the full recipe was supposed to
make 3-4 dozen.
I wasn’t sure how much a “small bag” of self-rising
flour (as written in the recipe) was since self-rising flour isn’t as common in my area as it is in the
South. Melvina told me it was typically 2 pounds. I researched online and
translated a pound of all-purpose flour is equal to 3 1/3 cups. My digital scale
confirmed that, using the dip-and-sweep method of measuring flour. You can make
your own self-rising flour by adding baking powder and salt. 1 cup of
all-purpose flour + 1 ½ teaspoons baking powder + ¼ teaspoon salt = 1 cup
self-rising flour. Or so say multiple sources on Google. Which is what I used since I don’t normally buy self-rising flour and they didn’t have small bags of
it at the store.
Using those adjustments, I made the recipe. The dough was
beautifully easy to work with and I patted it into thick discs, bypassing the
directions to roll it into a ball and flatten – same results. I wasn’t sure how
long to bake it for since the bottoms of the cookie turning golden brown signal
they’re done but it’s hard to check the bottom of a baking cookie. The proxy is
to watch the edges and take them out as soon as they show a little color. The
tops will also “dry” and show some cracks. It’s easy to overbake these so watch
carefully. Baking time also depends on the size and thickness you make the
cookies. I didn’t refrigerate or freeze them but they had enough flour in them
that they didn’t really spread which was nice.
I ate half of the taste test cookie while it was still
lukewarm and it was delicious. I loved the texture. Normally I don’t like cakey
cookies but I’ll make the exception for a good vanilla butter cookie that’s
thick and chubby. I ate the second half of the taste test cookie when it was
completely cool and it was still good. The butter and vanilla flavors really
come out. So it’s important to use fresh butter and real vanilla extract. Don’t
settle for imitation anything or margarine.
I love old recipes that have withstood the test of time
so thank you, Dianne, for sharing your grandmother’s recipe and educating me on
what a real Southern Tea Cake from a Southerner is like.
Below is recipe as posted by Dianne, except what's in blue are my edits
2 eggs
4 sticks butter
2 cups sugar
1 small bag
(2 lbs) self-rising flour
(see blog post for substitutions)
2 tablespoons vanilla
All Ingredients Should Be Room Temperature.
No Substitute On Butter. Use Butter.
Preheat Oven To 350 Degrees. Use Ungreased Cookie Sheet.
Using Hand Mixer Beat Butter And Sugar Together, Add Eggs, Beat Well. Add Vanilla Beat Well.
Add Flour A Little At A Time Until Hand Mixer Begins To Struggle (You can mix the whole batch by hand if you want to. My Grandmother never had a mixer so she mixed by hand). Continue To Add Flour A Little At A Time Mixing By Hand. Dough Should Not Stick To Hands Or Feel ‘Packy’. (SOFT BUT FIRM) Depending On Weather, May Not Need WHOLE Bag Of Flour Or May Need A Little More Than A Bag.
Pinch Off Dough In Golf Ball Size Pieces, Roll In Hands And Flatten. Put On Cookie Sheet, Pieces Not Touching. Bake Until Sides Of Bottoms Begin To Color. Bottoms Will Be Nice Brown, Tops Will Be Pale. Should Make 3 – 4 Dozen Tea Cakes Depending On Sizes Made.
