No cold season without tea parties, and no tea parties without delicious cookies! Right?
Many, many years ago I spent two weeks in England. I really enjoyed my stay in a South-Western old-fashioned small town. There was time for everything: nobody rushed, no stress, no traffic jam, people used bicycles or simply walked to their office.
Before that journey drinking tea wasn’t a part of my life. I am rather coffee addict, but there I learned to appreciate the tradition of tea. I tried out many varies of tea and delicious cookies. Thanks to the internet, after a little search I found my favorite tea party cookie recipes so for my kids’ delight I can bake them at home now.
Old-fashioned Tea Party Cookie With Lemon and Coconut
- 3½ ounces softened butter
- 1⅕ cups all-purpose flour
- ½ cup shredded coconut
- 2/5 cup icing sugar
- grated zest of 1 lemon
- 2 tablespoons water
- 1 egg yolk
- Mix together all ingredients in a food processor until well combined.
- Wrap the dough in a plastic and refrigerate until firm, at least 1 hour.
- Preheat oven to 356F/180C.
- On a slightly floured surface, roll out dough to an 1/10-inch thickness.
- Cut out shapes with cookie cutters.
- Transfer cut-out shapes to a parchment-lined baking sheet.
- Bake until edges are golden, 10 minutes.
- Cool cookies 1 minute on sheets, and transfer to wire racks to cool completely.
- Seal them in an airtight container.
While my kids like flavored cookies, I prefer plain ones. One of the most popular plain cookies is pate sablée – first baked by Michel Roux. It is a sweet and rich pastry made with butter and icing sugar, flour and egg yolk. It’s tricky to make and handle, but not that hard if you follow the directions. It keeps well in the fridge if made in advance. (The only thing I don’t like in pate sablée is that the cookies should be eaten as soon as possible, and certainly on the same day. But in such a large family I have, well, it’s not a big problem…)
Pate sablée with vanilla
Ingredients
- 125g (2/3 cup) plain flour
- 100g (1/3 cup + 1tbsp) butter
- 50g (scant 1/2 cup) icing sugar
- 1 egg yolk
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
Instructions
- put all ingredients in a food processor and mix them well
- gently knead the dough 2-3 times with your hand to form a ball
- wrap the dough in a plastic and refrigerate until firm, at least 1 hour
- preheat oven to 340F/170C
- on a slightly floured surface, roll out dough to an 1/10-inch thickness
- cut out shapes with cookie cutters
- transfer cut-out shapes to a parchment-lined baking sheet
- bake until edges are golden, 7-8 minutes
Tips
- you can keep pate sablée wrapped in a clingfilm in the fridge for up to a week
- you can also freeze the pastry (it stands you in good stead before Xmas)
- you can decorate is with cookie stamps
These look delicious! They remind me of the ones my aunt makes every Christmas 🙂
Hello Rita,
Thanks for stopping by. Yes, they are really old-fashioned, they remind me of my days spending many years ago in England.
Have a nice weekend.
Those cookies are adorable! I know it sounds silly, but never have the patience to use cookie cutters. haha.
Also, I LOVE your main blog photo of the hands! It’s such a clever idea.
Hello Kristin,
Thanks for stopping by and for your kind words relative to the main blog photo.
I agree with you… making cookies with cookie cutters is a fiddling job. 🙂
Have a nice weekend.
Yum. These sound great and are so cute. Perfect for Christmas.
Hello,
Thanks for stopping by. Yes, they’re very delicious and easy to make. I’ll make them for school fair for my kids.
Have a nice weekend.
These look awesome! They would be awesome with cup of tea – we love tea and cookies. Thanks for sharing!
Hello Zan,
Thanks for stopping by. Yes, they’re very good with a cup of tea or coffee or hot chocolate. Here, it is snowing so there’s nothing better than baking tea cookies for the family.
Have a nice weekend.