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Afternoon Tea at the Butchart Gardens, Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada
Photographic Print
Ricca, Connie
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“[T]ea… will
always be the favourite drink of the intellectual.”
~ Thomas De Quincey, 'Confessions of an English Opium
Eater'
The inspiration for this feature comes from several
marvelous afternoons spent lingering over
High
Tea at Le Salon in the Windsor
Court Hotel in New Orleans.
Am I prejudiced? Well, perhaps just a tad, as my son (Chef Keegan) was Executive
Pastry Chef at the Windsor Court at the time. (This means I expect an extra truffle or
two...) And I must admit I find myself faced with a very tough decision: Do I
opt
for Mother's Day Brunch or High Tea? How about both?
High Tea, Page 1
What would High Tea be without Tea Cakes?
Edna's
Tea Cakes
The Grass Roots Cookbook
by Jean Anderson, Crown Publishing Group, 1983
 
"These don't dry out or stale so fast 'cause there's no milk in them," Annie
Pool
says of these old Virginia sugar cookies. The recipe comes from her older
half-sister, Edna Woltz, and has been a family favorite for nearly a hundred
years. Small wonder, because the flavor is pure butter, sugar and eggs.
Add
a teaspoon of
vanilla, if you like, but Annie Pool never does.”
1 cup butter
2 cups sugar
4 eggs
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
6 to 6 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
(amount needed will vary
according
to the size
of the eggs)
Makes about 6
dozen cookies
1. Cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy, then beat
in the eggs,
one at a time, creaming all the while.
2. Stir in the soda and salt; add the flour, about 1 cup at a time, mixing
well
after each addition. You will want only enough flour to make the
dough stiff
enough to roll; it should still be soft, about the consistency
of biscuit dough.
3. Roll the dough out, about one-fourth of it at a time, on a lightly floured
board or pastry cloth to a thickness about like piecrust. Cut it into rounds
with a floured 2 1/2-inch cookie cutter.
4. Space cookies about 1 1/2 inches apart on ungreased baking sheets
and
bake at 375 degrees F. for 10 to 12 minutes, until very pale tan.
Remove
cookies at once to wire racks to cool. Let cookies "crispen"
about half an
hour before eating. Store in airtight canisters.
Mama's
Teacakes
Mrs. A. G. ("Miss Susie") Rankin, Sr., Marengo County, AL
The Grass Roots Cookbook
by Jean Anderson, Crown Publishing Group, 1983
"Any time I want to do something nice for a child," Miss Susie says, "I'll
bake
Mama's Teacakes. I've cut the recipe down for people who want to make
things
quick. The old recipe calls for 7 cups of flour. Now, that is just a world
of
work to mix in. I tried the recipe again recently and found that you can mix
the
dough with your mixer, using about 5 1/2 cups of flour. That's a-plenty. I
put
the dough in a bowl and set it in the refrigerator. Then whenever I want
teacakes, I just get me a gob of dough and roll it out."
Makes about 8
dozen cookies (including re-rolls)
1 cup butter, at room temperature
2 cups granulated sugar
3 teaspoons ground nutmeg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 eggs
1 teaspoon baking soda dissolved in
1/2 cup buttermilk
5 1/2 cups sifted all-purpose flour
1. Cream together the butter, sugar, nutmeg and vanilla until
light and
fluffy. Add eggs and mix just until blended. Stir in
soda-buttermilk
mixture, then, with mixer set at low speed, beat the flour in, a
cup
at a time.
2. Divide dough in four equal parts, flatten each into a large round on a
sheet
of heavy-duty foil, then wrap and chill several hours until firm
enough to roll. Or freeze the dough for later use.
3. Roll dough out, 1/4 at a time on a lightly floured pastry cloth, making it
about as thin as piecrust. Cut with a 2 3/4- to 3-inch round cutter.
Bake
cookies on lightly greased baking sheets in a moderately hot
(375-degree F.)
oven for 8 to 10 minutes or until pale tan.
4. Remove cookies from oven and transfer while warm to wire racks
to cool.
The following recipe is
taken from one of our all-time favorite "community" cookbooks. In addition to
having excellent recipes and being extremely well
edited, it features narratives by two renowned Jackson, MS natives, Beth
Henley
and
Eudora Welty.
Nanny's Teacakes
Virginia L. Fox
Standing Room Only – A Cookbook for Entertaining *
1983, New Stage Theatre, Jackson, MS, Barbara
Austin, General Editor
Makes about 60
3/4 cup butter
21/2 cups sugar
3 eggs
3 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon nutmeg
1 teaspoon lemon juice
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3 cups flour
Cream butter and sugar, add eggs one at a time, beating well
after each addition. Sift flour with baking powder and nutmeg; add to creamed
ingredients. Add flavorings and beat well. Refrigerate in bowl until stiff.
Roll in 3 rolls; wrap in wax paper; leave refrigerated until ready to bake.
Roll out on board dusted with confectioner's sugar or flour and cut with
cookie
cutter. Bake at 350 degrees F. for 10 minutes.
* For your sake, I do hope this
wonderful cookbook is still available:
New Stage Theatre, 1100 Carlisle Street, Jackson, MS 39202
Miss Kate Hanes' Tea Cakes
Pass the Plate:
The Collection from Christ Church
November 1981, compiled by Christ Episcopal Church, New Bern, NC
"Best rolled cookie recipe I have ever found.
Flavor enhanced by storing a
week."
2 cups brown sugar
3/4 cup butter
2 eggs
1 3/4 teaspoons baking soda
2 tablespoons buttermilk
1 1/2 tablespoons lemon flavoring
5 1/2 cups flour
Cream sugar and butter, add eggs, mixing well. Add soda in
buttermilk,
lemon flavoring and mix well. Add flour, mixing to form a soft
dough.
Roll small amount out thinly and cut with favorite cookie cutters.
Bake
in preheated 350-degree F. oven until golden.
- Judith Branch Blythe (Mrs. Charles B.)
And for the coffee lovers among you.....
Coffee "Tea" Cakes
Joanne Chang
Fine Cooking
#32
“The perfect cake with tea--or coffee. These coffee-flavored scone-like
treats
are
best eaten when still warm... These little cakes look like
scones but have a
moister, more cake-like texture.”
Yields 8 tea cakes.
9 ounces
(2 cups) all-purpose flour
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
2/3 cup packed light brown sugar
1-1/2 tablespoons finely ground coffee beans
(from about 1 heaping tablespoon whole beans)
1 stick (8 tablespoons) cold butter, cubed
1/3 cup heavy cream
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/3 cup cold brewed espresso or
double-strength coffee
1 teaspoon packed light brown sugar
1 teaspoon sugar
Heat the
oven to 350 degrees F. Using a stand mixer with the paddle attachment or a
regular mixer with beaters, combine the flour, baking
powder, salt, baking soda,
2/3 cup brown sugar, and the ground coffee
beans. Add the butter and mix on low
speed until the pieces of butter
are the size of marbles. Add the cream,
vanilla, and cold espresso and continue mixing until the dough just comes
together. Pat the dough onto
an ungreased baking sheet into a round about 6
inches in diameter.
Mix the 1 teaspoon brown sugar with the white sugar to make it "sprinkleable."
Sprinkle the round lightly with the sugar and cut it
into 8 triangles. Bake until firm but still springy, 40 to 50 min.
Remove from the oven and cool. Cut
into wedges along the lines.
She'll soon open her own pastry shop,
Flour, in Boston.
© by
The Taunton Press, Inc.
Used by permission.
High Tea, Page 1
La Belle Cuisine
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