Mama Crowder's Tea Cakes

Teacakes are not hard to make, but they do require some time.

I mainly remember Mama Crowder making teacakes for Christmas and Valentine's Day. I guess it was kind of like a winter sport for her. During other seasons she was so busy working in the garden or "putting up" whatever was in the garden that she barely had time to make teacakes.

Teacakes look like roll-out-and-cut sugar cookies, but they have a more cakey texture. They really aren't that sweet right out of the oven, but the powdered sugar icing takes care of that.

Teacakes are a typical Southern thing and like a lot of Southern things, there are probably 1000s of variations and recipes. In fact, I had two variations of what I thought was Mama Crowder's teacake recipe in my own files. With instruction like "heaping cup sugar" and "pinch salt" and "a little bit of milk". One of these recipes was on a well used and studied page that I could hardly read for the all the holes in the paper. The holes were from sticky things flying in the kitchen while I practiced this recipe over the years. I haven't made teacakes recently and wanted to get it right, so I called Libby for help.

Making teacakes by yourself is not that much fun. But it is fun to do with someone else. Mama Crowder knew this and sometimes she would call and ask if anybody wanted to come make teacakes. She would make the dough the day before and sometimes she would already have the cookies cut out and baked. If you were there to help with the icing, you had to be VERY VERY careful to ice all the way out to the edge of the cookie. When you were sprinkling colored sugar or sprinkles on the cookies you had to have a good eye for how much is enough. As much as Mama Crowder enjoyed the help, she was pretty particular about how those cookies were iced and decorated.

Since Libby and I both wanted to make teacakes for Valentine's Day, we decided to make them together at my house last Friday morning. I reviewed the recipe with Libby and accepted her corrections since she's made them more than I have - and hers are always really good.

I made up the dough which is fairly quick and easy to put together, then divided into two balls and chilled in the fridge. You can do this several days ahead but we usually make the dough one day and bake the next.

On Friday morning, we rolled out the dough to Mama Crowder's exact specifications which were - "Roll THIN. About as thick as a Wooden Matchstick."

I found a wooden matchstick (see photo) because I wanted to be precise. Libby and I decided they used to make matchsticks a little thicker back in Mama Crowder's Day, but we think we got it right.

Since it was for Valentine's we used only heart shaped cookie cutters, but Mama Crowder used all kinds at different times. I love the reindeer at Christmas even if their little legs sometimes burn or fall off. I always decorate reindeer as Rudolph with a Red Hot for a nose.

We baked the cookies and then let them cool. Libby made the icing. Mama Crowder usually made several colors of icing - pink and white for Valentine's, and red and green for Christmas. We just made white icing this time. I'm not a fan of pink cookies.

Thankfully Libby remembered that it helps with clean up if you put aluminum foil down before you decorate. Otherwise everything will be sticky AND those little multi colored sugar balls will roll off the counter and all over the kitchen.

When it was all said and done, we had about 80 cookies. Well, maybe more like 75 because several of them disappeared during the icing stage. There is nothing better than a slightly warm freshly iced teacake. With a hot cup of coffee or a big glass of milk.

They tasted so good and it warmed my heart. All morning long, as we rolled, baked, cut and iced, I could almost see Mama Crowder at work and hear her laughter. Those heart shaped cookies are full of love.


Mama Crowder's Tea Cakes

For Cookie Dough:

4 1/2 Cups Plain Unsifted Flour
1/4 tsp salt
2 tsp baking powder

Sift together after measuring.

1 heaping cupful of sugar

1 tsp vanilla
2 egggs
1/4 cup milk
1 cup butter (softened)

Mix wet and dry ingredients until stiff dough forms. Divide into two balls. Wrap in saran wrap and refrigerate until ready to roll and cut.

To Make Cookies:

Let dough soften out of fridge and then roll out very thin. "Thick as a wooden matchstick".

Cut into shapes. Bake at 350-375 degrees on greased cookie sheet (we used pam spray) and bake for 8 - 10 minutes until they rise. Touch to see if they are done. Your finger print shouldn't stay in the dough and the cookies shouldn't be too brown on the bottom. To avoid burning cookies on the bottom you can move to a higher position in the oven.

Cool cookies. Ice and decorate.

Icing:

1 box 10x Powdered Sugar
1/4 stick of butter (melted)
A few drops of Vanilla
A little milk

Decorating sprinkles. Food Coloring if you want.

You may need to add more milk to keep the icing from getting too dry. Decorate as soon as you ice the cookies or the icing can get too hard.

Teacakes will get hard and are best eaten within the first two or three days. Which usually isn't much of an issue. Happy Valentine's Day!