Lemon Tea Biscuits
 
Prep time
Cook time
Total time
 
Lemon tea biscuits are made with cake flour, lemon zest and fresh lemon juice for a sweet teacake that can be served for an afternoon tea party or as part of a brunch menu.
Author:
Recipe type: Dessert
Cuisine: American
Serves: 24
Ingredients
  • For the Biscuits:
  • 2 cups cake flour
  • 2 teaspoons baking powder
  • ½ teaspoon salt
  • 4 Tablespoons butter or shortening
  • 1-1/2 teaspoons finely grated lemon rind (lemon zest)
  • ⅔ cup milk
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  • ⅛ cup melted butter (Use for Step 7 - Do not add to recipe)
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  • For the Filling
  • 4 Tablespoons granulated sugar
  • 1-1/2 teaspoons finely grated lemon rind (lemon zest)
  • ¼ teaspoon lemon juice
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Instructions
  1. Preheat oven to 450 degrees.
  2. In a large mixing bowl, sift flour once, measure, add baking powder and salt, and sift again.
  3. Cut in butter with a pastry cutter until well blended; add grated lemon rind and blend in to flour mixture.
  4. Add milk all at once and stir carefully until all flour is dampened.
  5. Stir vigorously until mixture forms a soft dough and follows spoon around bowl. Turn out immediately on a slightly floured board (with cake flour) and knead 30 seconds. This will be a very soft dough. When kneading and rolling out the dough be sure to have enough extra cake flour to keep the dough from sticking. Using a rolling pin, roll out to ¼ inch thick with a rolling pin and cut with 1-1/2 inch floured biscuit cutter. Cut 48 biscuits. You can re-roll the remaining dough 2-3 times without worry of it becoming tough.
  6. In a separate small bowl for the filling combine sugar, lemon rind, and enough lemon juice to make a crumbly mixture- about ¼ teaspoon or so.
  7. Place half of the biscuits in a greased 24 count mini-muffin pan. Using a pastry brush, brush each biscuit half with melted butter and spoon about a teaspoon of the sugar mixture over the melted butter on each biscuit. Top with each of the remaining biscuits, pressing lightly together.
  8. Bake in preheated 450 degree F. hot oven 8-10 minutes, or until done.
Notes
Frosting (Optional)
These lemon tea biscuits turn out delicious on their own but you may want to dress them up a bit with some frosting. I tried ready-made cream cheese frosting and it was very good. I also tried taking a few spoons of the ready made cream cheese frosting in a small bowl and added a ¼ teaspoon of lemon juice and also 2 drops of yellow food coloring to frost these biscuits. That turned out equally good.
Nutrition Information
Serving size: 2
Recipe by Vintage Cooking at https://www.vintagecooking.com/lemon-tea-biscuits/