Juju’s tea cakes
Tea Cakes can be customized for any holiday
This recipe was handed down from my great-grandmother, Julia “JuJu” Harris, who lived in DeWitt, Virginia. Yes, they are cookies, but what we know as cookies now were then called tea cakes. I roll these out pretty thin, but she had a version she left thicker and cut out in the shape of rabbits with raisins for eyes. It’s a wonderful all-purpose dough I come back to again and again at Christmastime.
Tea Cakes Recipe
Makes a few dozen, depending on cookie size and technique
Ingredients:
2 sticks butter (8 oz.), softened at room temperature
1 ½ cups sugar (the natural kind works if it’s finely textured)
2 large eggs (or one Jumbo)
2 ½ cups all-purpose flour plus extra for flouring cookie surface
1 tsp. good-quality vanilla extract
1 tsp. baking powder
Instructions:
With an electric mixer, cream together butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add eggs and vanilla and beat until combined. Sift dry ingredients together into a separate bowl, then add to the butter mixture in two additions. Mix until just combined. Scrape out of bowl and shape roughly into four disks, wrapping in plastic wrap or parchment. Chill for at least an hour, or overnight, until firm.
When ready to make cookies, preheat oven to 350º. Leave dough out at room temperature for 20 minutes or so, until softened and workable but still cold and somewhat firm. Prepare trays with either parchment or silpat. Ready a clean surface and rolling pin, along with some extra flour for dusting. Lightly dust your work surface and rolling pin and roll out cookie dough, working from the center outward and rotating the disk for the most even thickness. When you’ve reached about between 1/8" and 1/16” thickness (or as desired), cut out your cookies with floured cutters of your choice. Transfer to prepared cookie sheets (a dough scraper really helps) and decorate as desired.
Bake, checking frequently, between 15 and 25 minutes. Ovens vary widely, and much depends on how thinly you've rolled your dough. When done to your likeness (I like them golden around the edges), remove tray from oven and cool cookies before handling. They keep in an airtight container for a couple of weeks.