At some point in history Christmas time became synonymous with ooey, gooey, sugary, delicious holiday cookie time. And at Epting Events we don’t believe in passing up sweets for any reason, much less an excellent reason like Christmas.

In light of our near obsessive love of cookies, I wanted to share a sweet holiday recipe on the blog. I started digging around on the internet for inspiration and found several fancy recipes with long lists of ingredients, but that’s never been my style. So instead I decided to share a recipe that’s been in my family for generations: the tea cake. This rustic Christmas cookie doesn’t have any gimmicks; it lets simple ingredients shine.

Teacakes are the perfect semi-sweet, melt-in-your-mouth, sprinkle covered treat. So they’re basically everything that a Christmas cookie should be. My family has been making them for years and as far as I’m concerned, it’s not Christmas time until the first batch of tea cakes is on the cooling rack. Like any good Southern recipe, this one requires some tips and tricks to be able to pull it off. But don’t worry. I’ll give you the inside scoop so your cookies will turn out perfectly!

Caroline and Rachel helped me make this batch at The Hill and Lee couldn’t keep his hands off them once they came out of the oven. Enjoy!

Tea Cakes

Makes one dozen

 2 ¼ cups plain flour
1 ½ teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon vanilla
½ cup butter
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 tablespoon canned milk
food color
sprinkles

 

1. Combine flour, baking powder, and sugar in a large bowl.

 

2. Add in vanilla, butter, eggs, and canned milk. You can try to mix it up with a spoon but take it from me, the only way to get that perfect dough consistency is by kneading with your hands. So get in there! A little butter moisturizes as well as any fancy lotion, am I right?

 

3. Once the dough is sticky enough to be formed into a slightly shiny ball, cover it with plastic wrap, set it in the fridge to chill for about twenty minutes, and hope you look as adorable as Caroline and Rachel do during this step.

 

4. Once the dough has chilled, flour a clean surface and mix in your food coloring. We went for green to make festive little Christmas trees.

 

5. Roll out the dough on your floured surface. Throw a little flour on the rolling pin too to keep it from sticking. Use cookie cutters to cut out your shapes. Once the dough has been worked with several times, you’ll need to put it back in the fridge for a few minutes to chill again. You’ll know it’s time when the dough loses its tackiness and starts breaking apart.

 

6. Bake at 420 degrees for about six minutes. Once any browning starts happening, they’ve gone too long. Lee wondered in to see if the cookies were baking properly. Funny how he magically shows up when we’re baking sweets!

 

7. Let cool and serve those babies with a glass of milk. Enjoy, but make sure to leave some for Santa if you want to stay on the nice list.

I’m so happy to share a recipe with you that has brought my family together for years and years. Comment below or hashtag #eptingevents to show us your teacake Christmas treats! -Laura