Seeking Susie

My in-laws, Al and Glenn, along with their cousin Nell, came through town yesterday on their way home from a family reunion they went to in Mt. View, Arkansas.  We didn’t have time to go grocery shopping before they came so I thought I would try to whip something up quickly they could snack on.  I decided to try out Big Mama’s Tea Cakes, the recipe that my cousin Nedra sent me. She got it from Aunt Maudie, and she got it from her mama, and my great-grandmother Mollie Harris, aka “Big Mama”.

Anywho, they loved the Tea Cakes, and Nell even took the them home with her. Well, okay, there were only three left and I saw no need to fight her for them.  I’ll just make more.  I have a feeling she will too as she took the recipe home with her.  After a little trial and probably a lot of error, here are the Tea Cakes.

I know, if The Pioneer Woman happens to stop by,  I’m sure she will be ashamed of my picture-taking skills, but I’ll get there one day!  In the mean time, you will at least get the jest of what to do!

So, gather the ingredients:

Got them?  Ok, the first thing you must do is cream the butter (one stick) and one cup of sugar thoroughly.  Grab your mixer and add the butter…

Now, add the sugar to the butter and let them mix until they are thoroughly combined.

Now, add one egg and beat well, and don’t waste time wondering if it was the egg or the chicken that came first….

Add your dry ingredients together, 2 cups of flour, 1/4 tsp of salt, 1/2 tsp of soda, and 2 1/2 tsps of baking powder…

And sift them….

Add 1/2 tsp of vanilla to 1/3 cup buttermilk.  Now, alternately add the dry ingredients, and milk until mixed well.  Here’s the dry….

Here’s the wet….

Now, the next step of the recipe calls for rolling the mixture out on a lightly floured surface to 1/8 inch thickness and cutting with floured cookie cutters and placing them on a greased baking sheet.  My concoction didn’t quite work out for me like that, so I dropped them on the greased pan, and in the end, this was ok.

Now sprinkle with 1/2 cup of sugar….

Throw those babies in the 350 degree oven….

And 15 minutes later, you got this….

And these two happy ladies.  Cousin Nell on the left, and my mother-in-law Glenn, on the right.  I think at this point as they were eating, they were secretly plotting to keep them away from my father-in-law Al, who is in the background reading the newspaper.

After you try them out, let me know how yours turned out.  I was looking forward to rolling them out and using all my cute little cookie cutters, but it just didn’t happen for me.  In the end, it didn’t matter, they were still good and we enjoyed them off and on, all day long!

 ~Susie Higginbotham~