In Search Of Oma’s Tea Cakes

I’ve started a new project. Collecting family recipes.  My family is super small.  I am an only child, my Dad, also an only child and my Mom, one sibling.  Not an abundance of aunts, uncles or cousins.  When I was a little girl we didn’t see much of my Mom’s side of the family.  It required traveling quite a distance.  Not something my family of 3 did often.  But on a few occasions I remember visiting my great grandmother, who was called Oma, in Schertz, Texas.  It was her recipe for Tea Cakes that got me started on this whole project and a series of unlikely but fitting events that propelled me to try and nail it!  More on those events another time!

Oma, German for grandmother, traveled to the United States from Germany when she was but a tiny girl, around 3 years of age.  Her name was Augusta, it means majestic!  The home I remember was a rambling, white home with a wrap around porch, a garden and chickens and sheep.  Her home is now recognized by the city of Schertz as a historical landmark.  She lived to be 102!  I hope I’ve got some of her genes!

Tea Cakes are the one “food” I remember from my visits as a small child.  In my memory they were the size of salad plates and were kept in a large clear glass cookie jar.  At this time I am investigating to try and find her original recipe.  In the meantime my Mom came up with this recipe and tells me it is decidedly close to Oma’s recipe.

I remember a tender, cake like “cookie” with a crisp edge and bottom.  I tried her recipe for sugar cookies first as my memory thought it was a sugar cookie.  While very good, it was not the “cookie” I recalled.  That’s when my Mom said, “I bet it is her Tea Cakes you remember”.  Turns out she was right.

I’ll share this recipe as it is wonderful.  Sweet enough, with a hint of almond, one of my favorite extracts, yielding that crisp edge and bottom.  It is the perfect combo of soft, tender and crunchy.  I have been eating them for breakfast with my hot coffee, for dessert with a glass of ice cold milk and as a snack just because I can!

If and when I obtain Oma’s actual recipe I’ll do a comparison of the recipes, bake a batch of her originals and report the results.  Do you have memories of a favorite family recipe that you can’t get your hands on?  What foods are in your memory bank that your grandmothers, great-grandmothers or older family members kept on hand?  Share your recollections in the comments section – it’ll make me smile!