For this installment of our ongoing series, chef Virginia Willis of our Saving Southern Food chefs panel put a reader's adaptation of her late mother's tea cakes to the test, and Willis barely had to make an adjustment.

Joey Ivansco/AJC (ENLARGE)

'There was nothing like the smell of them as they came out of the oven,' Dorothy Sims says about her mother's treat.

Family photo (ENLARGE)

Daisy Nell Barrett would let each of her 12 children choose special meals for dinner.

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The contributor: Dorothy Sims of Dacula, a former real estate paralegal who also worked as a construction loan closing specialist for a local bank. She now enjoys being a nanny to two grandchildren, gardening, reading, photography and scrapbooking, vacationing at the beach and fishing. "I have recently completed a scrapbook of the history of our family as a special Christmas gift to my siblings," she wrote.

The story: "My mama, Daisy Nell Barrett, who has been deceased for 28 years, was a special person, and was loved and respected by all her 12 children. She really lived through some hard times, having been born in 1914 in Gwinnett County, surviving the Depression and war, but she always told us that we would make it through. My father was a farmer and also held other jobs to supplement our income.

"Mama worked in the fields also, as well as taking care of the household. We did not have a lot of material things, but we thrived on the special love and attention Mama gave each of us and the companionship of our siblings. She taught us to depend on each other and to have good moral values and work ethic. She encouraged us to do well in school in order to have a better life.

"I remember my mother teaching me to sew (especially did I enjoy quilt making), to take care of my clothes, and to cook. She would take turns allowing each of us to choose what we would like for dinner and would make it special for us.

"We ate a lot of vegetables and fruit that we grew, and we did a lot of canning and preserving. Another favorite was her fried apple pies that she made from apples that we dried ourselves. The tea cakes were a special treat that all of us enjoyed, and there was nothing like the smell of them as they came out of the oven.

"I duplicated her recipe from memory, but had to do trial and error on the amount of flour, because like most good Southern cooks, she really did not need to follow a recipe. I also make a bigger mess than she did."

Daisy Nell Barrett's Old-Fashioned Tea Cakes
Makes about 5 dozen

Hands on: 10 minutes
Total time: 1 1/2 hours (including chilling time)

Other than adding a little more flour, Atlanta chef and recipe tester Virginia Willis found that Dorothy Sims' adaptation of her late mother's pinch-of-this, dash-of-that cookies worked great. "This was a special treat Mom made for us when we were children," wrote Sims, explaining that she was one of 12 children raised in Gwinnett County. "While there was always sufficient food, the variety was limited. It was a special time for us when Mom made this."

5 cups self-rising flour
1/4 cup (1/2 stick) unsalted butter, softened
1/2 cup lard or vegetable shortening
2 cups granulated sugar
2 eggs, lightly beaten
1/2 cup buttermilk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line a baking sheet with a nonstick silicone baking sheet or parchment paper; set aside. Sift flour into a large bowl; set aside. In the bowl of a mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream the butter and lard or shortening with the sugar until pale yellow. Add the beaten eggs. Add buttermilk and vanilla extract. Scrape down the sides of the bowl. Add flour and mix until well-combined. Transfer to a piece of plastic wrap and shape the dough into a disk. Refrigerate until firm, about 30 minutes.

Divide the dough into 4 equal pieces. Working with one piece at a time (keeping the remainder chilled), roll the dough out between sheets of plastic wrap to 1/8-inch thick. Using a 3-inch cookie cutter, cut into rounds. Place the tea cakes on the baking sheet. Bake until pale golden brown, 12 to 15 minutes. Remove to a rack to cool slightly, then remove the tea cakes to the rack to cool completely. Repeat with remaining dough. Store in an airtight container for up to one week.

Per tea cake: 74 calories (percent of calories from fat, 28), 1 gram protein, 13 grams carbohydrates, trace fiber, 2 grams fat (1 grams saturated), 8 milligrams cholesterol, 121 milligrams sodium.