“A summer in the South wouldn’t be quite right without sweetened iced tea, but making iced tea can be easier said than done. It’s all too easy to turn the tea unpalatably bitter through oversteeping. How do you make perfectly smooth sweet iced tea? Here’s what we discovered:

Test Kitchen Discoveries

• Skip the heat. Steep a large quantity of tea bags in room temperature water for a strong-flavored brew without the bitterness.
• Sweeten the tea with simple syrup instead of granulated sugar to ensure that the sugar fully dissolves into the tea. Simple syrup is just equal parts water and sugar heated long enough to dissolve the sugar.
• Flavor the syrup with lime zest and add cranberry juice for a unique iced tea."

This recipe has floating around my family for years. The cream cheese filling is a modern flair, but it can be left out without changing the flavor or cooking time.

Cranberry alternative:
Follow recipe below, however substitute orange rind for lemon rind, and dried cranberries for golden raisins.

Chocolate alternative:
Follow recipe below, however leave out rind and substitute semi-sweet chocolate morsels for raisins. Add 1-tsp of vanilla extract to scolded milk, and 1-tbls of coca powder to cheese filling.

Cinnamon alternative:
Follow recipe below, however leave out rind and substitute chopped walnuts for raisins. Add 1-tbls of ground cinnamon to cheese filling and substitute light brown sugar for granulated sugar. Sprinkle ground cinnamon on dough before spreading cheese filling.