Tea Bag Cookies

About twenty years ago at a family Christmas celebration, Jim's grandmother gave each of her granddaughters (and granddaughters-in-law~me) a teacup/saucer from her personal collection.  At the time it was decided that we would get together and have a tea party with our "new" teacups. Well, we're a little late, but we finally did it a couple of weeks ago!

This is the teacup I was given. Isn't it pretty?

I used my own blue calico teacups for the rest of the photos, which are special to me also. They were the dishes I chose when I was getting married and my parents gave us a service for eight, 32 years ago (YIKES!) this month:)
One of Jim's cousin's was given the same dishes when she was married a couple of years after us.  She has since grown tired of them, so I was recently given a whole slew of more blue calico dishes...

YIPPEE!  Thanks so much Kim!!!   I still love them; they're so cheerful:) Isn't the little cow creamer cute?!?

Anyhow, I wanted to take a hostess gift to the tea party, and thought of cookies right away.  Initially, I was going to make some teapot, teacup cookies, but since I was short on time I thought tea bag cookies would come together quickly and turn out to be very cute.  I looked around the internet for ideas and right away was directed to Not Quite Nigella, and then remembered that I had recently seen her tea bag cookie post:)  I already follow Lorraine's blog and am quite a fan.  Besides great food, Lorraine is a great storyteller:)

Update 11/6: I didn't recall that I had originally seen tea bag cookies way back in 2010 on Kim's fabulous blog, Frost Me, but Kim kindly reminded me (Thank you).  I had even commented on her post, but that was pre-Pinterest, and I  did not "pin" the post onto my memory board:(

Since I had some of my homemade sugar cookie dough available that's what I used.   I did make the tea bag cookies thinner than my usual sugar cookies, but even thinner might look more authentic, as Lorraine suggested.

A real tea bag was used to measure the size of the cookies and I used a ruler to cut out a long strip of dough marking the bottom and top with the tea bag. After that I marked the width of each with a sharp knife using the tea bag as a guide once again.
After I transferred all the dough rectangles to the baking sheet, I held the tea bag on top of each to use as a template in cutting off the the angled corners at the top of each cookie. 
Lastly, to make the holes, I used a decorating tip-#12.  I knew the  holes would close up a bit while baking, so I placed the unbaked cookies (on the baking sheets) into the freezer before baking for 10-15 minutes.

Twine was doubled and looped through the tea bag hole and the two ends were tied together into a small knot. Just below the knot the twine was centered onto a piece of decorative tape, which was then folded over to secure it.
You may add the twine/tape before or after dipping them in chocolate.
To make the "tea", melt some chocolate chips in a small, deep bowl, add about a tablespoon of shortening, and dip the cookies a little less than halfway in.  Set on wax paper to dry.

Voila! Tea Bag cookies!

Linked to:
Kitchen Fun and Crafty Friday
I'm Lovin' it Party 
Inspiration Friday 
Weekend Wrap Up Party