#89: Getting Everything Ready for Tea

A friend comes for tea and I enjoy the baking and getting everything ready as much as I do our visit. Plus a recipe for cookies.

To me there is something calming and centering about baking treats and setting the table for tea with a friend. I feel I am creating a still life. China tea cups and saucers, fancy napkins found at estate sales put back into service, freshly baked shortbread…

The cup I was given by Sadie, one of my baking mentors, when I was five years old.

scones on a fancy plate…

A plate from my first marriage…I still have all of them!

tea bread…

cookies and fruit…

A tea cozy found at the Irish linen store in Victoria BC ten years ago…or more.

pie set upon a pretty plate…

and flowers. Surely there must be flowers.

Sweet-peas are my favorites.

And the washing up after…the sound the cups and saucers make as I gather and carry them to the sink; the steam rising from hot soapy water as I wash off crumbs; wiping dry each dish, cup, saucer, and spoon with a clean white tea towel; finally placing everything back on the cupboard shelves…until the next time. I love it all.

Cookies of Joy

Today, I make Cookies of Joy to serve at tea time. Don’t you just love the name? The 12th-century recipe is attributed to Hildegard of Bingen¹ and I play music written by her as I bake. What an amazing woman.

The original recipe calls for spelt flour and since it is a gluten-full flour I substitute gluten-free ingredients. It’s a good thing I downsize the recipe to just half because if I had made the full recipe I would joyfully have eaten my way through too many of them as they are very good.

May the making, eating, and sharing of all your bakes bring you joy.

Recipe: Gluten-Free Cookies of Joy