TEA CAKES
These Old Fashioned Tea Cakes are a classic from long ago. Some people may call them shortbread cookies, but either way they are delicious.
If you love old-fashioned recipes, you will also love Kentucky Bourbon Balls. I have seen many recipes for these, but this one is authentic to a real bourbon ball.
Table of contents
❤️WHY WE LOVE THIS RECIPE
If you have followed our website for any amount of time, then you know we love old-fashioned recipes, and we love sharing our Grandmother’s recipes. This was one of her favorites. She was from Mississippi, and she loved to entertain her friends. She was very much a Southern Lady and loved to make these for afternoon tea. She would always serve them on cute little plates.
🍴KEY INGREDIENTS
- Pecans or walnuts
- Butter,
- Brown sugar
- Vanilla
- All-purpose flour
- Salt
SWAPS
There really aren’t many swaps on this recipe unless you want to switch out the vanilla for almond, coconut, maple, etc. That is really about the only change that could be made, other than leaving the nuts out altogether.
🍽️HOW TO MAKE
The most time-consuming part of this recipe is letting the dough get cold. You don’t want the fat source, the butter to heat up while you are working with the dough, so it must be chilled.
COOKING STEPS
Step 1
Mix all ingredients with mixer until very crumbly. Take your hands and shape into a ball and put in refrigerator until solid enough to pinch off a piece and flatten on a hard surface.
Step 2
Cut out shapes with cookie cutters.
Step 3
Bake on a greased cookie sheet at 350 degrees about 25 minutes. Just before removing from oven, turn on the broiler for about 45 seconds and let brown on top.
⭐TIP
If your dough get too soft while cutting out the cookies, just return to refrigerator for a while or between cooking.
SERVE THIS WITH
These delicious cookies are great for Christmas and go great with this Old Fashioned Snowball Cake. It’s a classic for a reason!
❓FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
They are not either.. honestly they have kind of a hard surface but they melt in your mouth. The butter keeps them soft.
Yes, this is a very old recipe and this is the way we have always made them.
STORING
These cookies will keep for several months in an air-tight container. We make them at the beginning of December and enjoy them through the holidays.
💕MORE POPULAR RECIPES TO ENJOY
SERVING SIZE
This recipe makes 3-4 dozen depending on the size of your cookie cutters.
Tea Cakes
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup finely chopped pecans or walnuts
- 2 sticks butter softened
- 2/3 cup brown sugar
- 1 tsp. vanilla
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
Instructions
- Mix all ingredients with mixer until very crumbly. Take your hands and shape into a ball and put in refrigerator until solid enough to pinch off a piece and flatten on a hard surface. Cut out shapes with cookie cutters.
- Bake on greased cookie sheet at 350 degrees about 25 minutes. Just before removing from oven turn on broiler for about 45 seconds and let brown on top.
Notes
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I have tea cake pans/molds from Nordic ware Would this recipe work with those?
I have no idea, but you can always try it.
my grandmother had tea cakes made when i come in from school many years ago .she always roll them out on a floured board.they were thin an delicious.thanks for this rec.
This recipe differs a bit from the one my mama used when I was little. Ours didn’t have nuts in them, but since I love nuts, I will have to give this one a try.
Just want to say, too, that I love your blog. I was born and raised in northern Mississippi, but have lived up north for 2 and a half decades now. (I met and fell madly in love with a Yankee. That’s okay, though, because Mama loved him, too, and said he fit into our family like we’d known him forever.) Anyway, I’ve spent all these years teaching him to love my Southern roots as much as I do. He’s become a fan of black-eyed peas, pulled pork barbecue, and sweet tea. Before he met us, he’d never had any of those things. Poor man. 😀
Thank you so much! Happy to have you on the site.
Do these cookies stay soft ? My husband’s Grand mother used to bake what she called Tea Cakes when he was a boy and I’ve never been able to find a recipe for them that stays soft, and I don’t overbake them.
These cookies are not soft. They are not hard either. I make them with small bite sized cookie cutters and since they have so much butter they just kind of melt in your mouth. I have made them every year at Christmas for at least 30 years and everyone that has them loves them.
There are several Teacake recipes online. When you find one you think might work for you just cream it a little more for a soft cookie
Marion , I am not much of a cook , lol when you say cream it a little more , do you just mean in the mixer beat them a little longer ?
My mother’s were soft, too, and she used white sugar. She did not measure when she cooked and did not go by recipes. Somethings I learned to make by watching her, but some things I can’t. She made the best biscuit ever and I can’t get mine to taste like hers. If you google old fashioned tea cakes you may find the ones you want.