Prohibition Tea Cakes

Submitted by LilPinkieJ

"This recipe is from an old cookbook I found. This is a Prohibition recipe because it calls for wine, so they had to use homemade wine. Home made wine or beer was legal as long as it contained no more than one-half per cent alcohol. From Every Woman's Cook Book, by Mrs. Chas. F. Moritz (1926) p. 457-458. The amounts in the ingredients look like estimates, much like my Gamma's recipes. She never measured anything so when she gave me her recipes it was all guesses and also from me watching her."

 

• Ready In: 55mins
• Ingredients: 8
• Yields: 40 cakes
• Serves: 10

ingredients

• 1 cup butter
• 1 cup sugar
• 1⁄2 cup sweet wine (homemade or bootleg)
• 1⁄2 teaspoon salt
• 1⁄2 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 4 cups sifted flour

directions

1. Cream butter soft, add sugar, continue creaming until well mixed. Beat in wine, add salt, cinnamon and vanilla.
2. Sift in flour gradually while beating, add baking powder to second cup flour.
3. Mix well, roll out one-quarter inch thick on floured biscuit board. Cut with fancy cake cutters. Put in greased pans dusted with flour.
4. Sprinkle granulated sugar over tops. Bake in moderate oven. Makes about forty cakes.
5. ** That is the recipe as stated. Moderate oven I would say is about 350°F It doesn't give a time. 15 minutes would likely be long enough at that temperature I suggest trying them at 275°F for 45 minutes.
6. Don't get raided by the coppers! :).

Reviews

[kitty.rock]

Well, I LOVE the flavor of these cookies, but had a bit of trouble with the dough, so I"m only giving 4 stars ~ but my intention is not to reflect badly on the finished product. BTW ~ I cut the recipe in half as I didn't want to be up all night baking :) I also used organic whole wheat pastry flour (that's all I use for baking). My dough ended up very sticky, so I could not roll it out ~ I ended up doing patty-cake with it and cutting out the cookies with a 2 1/2" cookie cutter. I baked at 350 for about 20 minutes. My cookies were a little dry but the flavor is OUTSTANDING. I think I worked the dough too much, or unintentionally added too much 'extra' flour as I patted and cut them out (I had to keep my hands floured to handle the sticky dough), or the WW flour had just made the finished consistency of the cookie different. But these were very easy to make and I WILL make them again. I like that they are not overly sweet, so a perfect cookie for coffee or tea-time. Thanks Jess for posting. Made for PRMR September, 2009.