Old-Fashioned Tea Cakes
These old-fashioned tea cakes, or white cookies, are just like grandma use to make. They are shaped like a cookie, but taste almost like a cross between a lightly sweetened biscuit and a cake.
Servings: 84 tea cakes
Ingredients
- 1 cup lard or shortening
- 2 cups granulated sugar
- 2 large eggs
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 1 cup sour milk or buttermilk
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 7½ cups all-purpose flour
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 375℉ and line cookie sheets with parchment paper or silicone mats.
- Beat lard and sugar together until light and fluffy.
- Add the eggs, one at a time, mixing until combined.
- Stir in the vanilla and sour milk. It's okay if the mixture looks curdled at this point.
- Stir in the flour, baking soda, and salt. The dough will be soft.
- Scoop 1 Tablespoon of dough onto lined baking sheets. Flatten slightly.
- Bake 8-10 minutes. Cool on cookie sheet for 2 minutes, then move to a wire rack to cool completely.
Notes
To make sour milk, add a Tablespoon of vinegar or lemon juice to a cup of milk and let sit for about 10 minutes.
If you want, you can roll each ball of dough in cinnamon sugar before flattening and baking. You can also use a mixture of pumpkin pie spice and sugar for even more flavor.
Try adding lemon or orange zest to the cookies for a citrus tones.
They are good plain, but we like adding a simple glaze of powdered sugar, vanilla, and a few drops of milk.
You can also roll out the dough and cut it using cookie or biscuit cutters. Increase the flour to 8 cups to make the dough stiff enough to roll out and chill for 30 minutes.
Nutrition
Serving: 1tea cake | Calories: 84kcal | Carbohydrates: 13g | Protein: 1g | Fat: 3g | Saturated Fat: 1g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 1g | Monounsaturated Fat: 1g | Trans Fat: 0.3g | Cholesterol: 4mg | Sodium: 44mg | Potassium: 18mg | Fiber: 0.3g | Sugar: 5g | Vitamin A: 10IU | Calcium: 6mg | Iron: 1mg
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