Clicky

Tea Biscuits

5 from 7 votes
Jump to RecipePinSave to Favorites

Site Index Baking Biscuits Dessert

This post may contain affiliate links. See my privacy policy for details.

Crunchy, rich, and incredibly British, tea biscuits are the perfect snack to have on hand to keep you full between meals. Make sure to serve this with plenty of English breakfast tea for the true British experience.

For more similar baking dishes, why not make The Best Biscuits Ever? Or make The Best Scones Ever instead?

Table of Contents
  1. Tea Biscuits
  2. Tea Biscuits Ingredients
  3. How To Make Tea Biscuits
  4. How To Cut The Butter Into The Flour With & Without A Pastry Cutter
  5. How to Serve Your Tea Biscuits
  6.  Pin This Recipe To Your Baking Recipes Board and Remember to FOLLOW ME ON PINTEREST!
  7. Tea Biscuits Recipe
tea biscuits with melted butter

Tea Biscuits

Just like a surprising number of great British things, tea biscuits originate from Yorkshire. Now usually known as Rich Tea biscuits, they are a malty, sweet, and crumbly snack, perfect for serving with tea or coffee.

Initially designed to help keep you full in-between meals or while on out on the field, these biscuits got a bit more famous internationally after Prince William of the UK revealed they were his favorite.

The trick with these tea biscuits is to ensure that you take care with their texture – you don’t want to under knead it and end up with a poorly mixed dough, but you also don’t want to over knead it and end up with some tough biscuits.

tea biscuits ingredients  in bowls

Tea Biscuits Ingredients

Make sure you look at the recipe card at the very bottom for the exact amounts so that you know exactly what to buy for this recipe.

• All-purpose flour

• Baking powder

• Salt

• Butter

• Milk

tea biscuits dough rolled out flat

How To Make Tea Biscuits

• Lightly grease a baking sheet, or line it with parchment paper instead

•Combine the flour, baking powder, and salt in a medium bowl

• Using a pastry cutter, cut the butter in until it has a fine crumb texture

• Add in the milk and work it with a fork to make a soft dough

• Knead it a few times (no more than 10) and then roll it out until it is about ½ to ¾ of an inch thick

• Cut with a cookie or biscuit cutter into desired shapes and sizes

• Place them onto the greased baking sheet and rest for 5 minutes

• After resting, bake them for 14 minutes at 400 Fahrenheit, or until they have risen and are starting to brown on top

• Serve warm with a bit of butter on the top

Tea Biscuits stacked

How To Cut The Butter Into The Flour With & Without A Pastry Cutter

Every recipe that requires you to work some butter into flour usually stumps a lot of people, especially inexperienced home cooks.

This is because it isn’t immediately clear how you are supposed to actually work the butter in – you cannot just mix it altogether, as otherwise, the butter will remain totally separate.

The trick is to be confident and use a lot of pressure when trying to mix everything; you are hoping to get the butter broken up into bits and really mixed into the flour as much as you can.

You have three options when it comes to working butter into flour: your fingers, two forks, or a pastry cutter.

Your fingers are probably the simplest – you just want to be crumbling the mixture together, constantly pressing it between your fingers, and trying to work the flour into it, so that each particle of flour is totally surrounding a tiny piece of butter.

You want the butter to be reasonably cold as well because otherwise, the butter will just melt when it touches your fingers.

If you don’t feel like getting your hands dirty, you could always use a pastry cutter instead. Pastry cutters have these rigid tines at the end of a convenient handle that is perfect for working the butter into the flour.

Unfortunately, not everyone feels like buying a specialized tool to use it only when they want to make a buttery pastry or biscuit.

To avoid paying for a tool you will rarely use, you can just use two forks instead.

Turn the forks so that the “inner” bit of the forks are facing each other and intersect their tines slightly. Held together in one hand, this will give you a good tool that allows you to cut the butter easily, though it won’t be as convenient as a pastry cutter.

Tea Biscuits on a cutting boaard

How to Serve Your Tea Biscuits

Tea biscuits were initially designed to be a convenient little snack to help you get through until your next meal.

These days, however, they are usually served as a snack to accompany a nice cup of English tea.

However, if you aren’t the type of person to enjoy a good cup of tea, then you can also try serving it with some coffee instead.

Tea biscuits also go great with a small amount of honey or jam. The sweetness works well with the slightly malty and ever so slightly dry texture and flavor of the biscuits themselves.

To become a true Yorkshireman, serve your tea biscuits with a slice of extra sharp mature Cheddar cheese as well as a cup of tea. Just like the slice of cheese on an apple pie in Vermont, Cheddar works really well with the kind of dry, crumbly flavors of a tea biscuit.

Looking for more Biscuit recipes? Why not try these recipes:

Bisquick® Biscuits

Lemon Scones

Popovers

Happy Cooking

Love,

Karlynn

 Pin This Recipe To Your Baking Recipes Board and Remember to FOLLOW ME ON PINTEREST!

Crunchy, rich, and incredibly British, tea biscuits are the perfect snack to have on hand to keep you full between meals.
EMAIL YOURSELF THIS RECIPE!
Enter your email to get this recipe emailed to you, so you don’t lose it and get new recipes daily!

Tea Biscuits

Crunchy, rich, and incredibly British, tea biscuits are the perfect snack to have on hand to keep you full between meals.
5 from 7 votes
tea biscuits with melted butter
Prep Time
10 minutes
Cook Time
15 minutes
Course
breads
Cuisine
American
Servings
8 Biscuits
Author
Karlynn Johnston

Ingredients
 

  • 2 cups all-purpose flour
  • 1 Tablespoon baking powder
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • ½ cup butter
  • ¾ cup milk

Instructions
 

  • Preheat oven to 400°
  • Lightly grease a baking sheet or line it with parchment paper.
  • In a medium bowl combine the flour, baking powder, and salt.
  • With a pastry cutter, cut the butter in until it has a fine crumb texture.
  • Add in the milk with a fork to make a soft dough.
  • Knead 8 to 10 times only, and then roll out to a thickness 1/2 inch – 3/4 inch thick.
  • Cut with a cookie or biscuit cutter or a glass.
  • Place them on the cookie sheet and let them rest for 5 minutes.
  • Bake for 12 to 15 minutes until they have risen and are starting to brown on top.
  • These are best if served warm with a bit of butter.

Recipe Notes

These are also great served with a bit of honey or jam.

All calories and info are based on a third party calculator and are only an estimate. Actual nutritional info will vary with brands used, your measuring methods, portion sizes and more.

Made this recipe?

Share a photo of what you made on Instagram or Facebook and tag me @thekitchenmagpie or hashtag it #thekitchenmagpie.

Please rate this recipe in the comments below to help out your fellow cooks!

Learn to cook like the Kitchen Magpie

A Very Prairie Christmas Bakebook

Cookies, Candies, Cakes & More: Vintage Baking to Celebrate the Festive Season!

Learn More

a copy of Flapper Pie cook book

Flapper Pie and a Blue Prairie Sky

A Modern Baker’s Guide to Old-Fashioned Desserts

Learn More

The Prairie Table

Suppers, Potlucks & Socials: Crowd-Pleasing Recipes to Bring People Together

Learn More

Karlynn Johnston

I’m a busy mom of two, wife & cookbook author who loves creating fast, fresh meals for my little family on the Canadian prairies. Karlynn Facts: I'm allergic to broccoli. I've never met a cocktail that I didn't like. I would rather burn down my house than clean it. Most of all, I love helping YOU get dinner ready because there's nothing more important than connecting with our loved ones around the dinner table!

Learn more about me

Site Index Baking Biscuits Dessert

Reader Interactions

Comments & Recipe Tips Share a tip or comment!

  1. Betty says

    I made these biscuits and spot on .. now don’t panic when you read knead only 8 to 10 times .. trust the process. mine turned out beautiful .. the kids ate them down like it was their last meal lol.. only down fall.. I should have made 2 batches lol .. Thank you Karlynn will be 100% making these again.

  2. Claire says

    They are exactly what I was looking for, delicious and simple, we enjoy them in different ways, today is with soup.

  3. Glen Miller says

    I just pulled a batch out of the oven, used your recipe exactly as written and made some delicious tea biscuits. Ate a few with a variety of jams and they were great. Reminded me of the tea biscuits I ate when I was growing up in Cape Breton. A simple recipe which yields great and tasty results.

  4. Kathy says

    Hubby and I loved these. Added grated cheese and enjoyed with chili. 2 thumbs up.👍👍

  5. Mary Mason says

    This is almost the same recipe that I use, but I put a cup of grated cheese in before I add the milk, (I use 1 cup of milk)
    So good !!

  6. Wendy says

    I don’t quite know what these are supposed to be , but they certainly aren’t English rich tea biscuits, (British biscuits are what you call cookies) and are absolutely not what Prince William was referring to as his favourite. Sorry.

    • Patti says

      I love how pleasant people are these days.

      It would have been nice if she referred to HER recipe she worked hard making and posting.

      Thank you for the recipe Karlynn.

    • Dayle says

      Couldn’t just move along, just had to let everyone know all your negative thoughts. Nobody is saying you need to love everything, and I didn’t realize that you are the be all, know all on what a biscuit is. It’s okay to just think your negative thoughts and then keep them to yourself … like adults do. Have a fabulous day Wendy. I’ll be waiting with baited breath for your perfect recipe and some other knowledge of what Prince William likes and doesn’t like.5 stars

      • Merri says

        Wendy’s statement wasn’t very negative, but direct and factual. When you truly respect cultures, then you would want to know those facts and go from there. Tea biscuits are what we refer to as cookies. What we call biscuits are similar to what the British, and many others around the world, call scones.

        • Kilby McCann says

          I made these biscuits for Father’s Day with Haskap jam. Wonderful and flakey. With the cost of food these days it’s a lovely simple treat . Tea biscuits are not scones but something special a child can make. When paired with jam it’s my Mom’s favourite dessert .I doubt Prince William will be over anytime but we will enjoy our version of a good biscuit.

Leave a Comment or Recipe Tip

Recipe Rating