SC - Feast Themes-Feast of Illusion

[Mark Schuldenfrei]

It was written:

>White Gingerbread (Fine Gingerbread)

>Dining With William Shakespeare gives the following recipe and 
>redaction:

>To Make White Gingerbread: Take halfe a pound of marchpaine past, a 
>quarter of a pound of white Ginger beaten and cerst, halfe a pound of 
>the powder of refined sugar, beate this to a very fine paste with 
>dragagant steept in rose-water (much snippage) 
^^^^^^^^^

>Redaction:
>1/2 pound almond paste
>2 tbsp rose water
>1 tsp gum arabic  (much snippage)
      ^^^^^^^^^^

Gum tragacanth (dragagant, dragon) and gum arabic are NOT the same 
thing and don't necessarily _do_ the same thing in a recipe.  
Tragacanth is a binder and strengthener, especially used in sugar 
paste.  Replacing tragacanth with arabic might lead to some of the 
problems experienced. Also, note that while this recipe is called 
"gingerbread" it is almond based, not bread based.  It's a delicious 
recipe, but not the same thing as gingerbread as one would expect 
gingerbread to be.

>Cover a cookie sheet with a piece of rice paper or kitchen
>parchment and place the cakes on it. 

Interesting difference.  You can eat the rice paper but you can't eat 
the kitchen parchment.

I don't recall having sticking problems when I did the recipe but there 
were several probable differences.  I don't use commercial almond paste 
(too sweet) and made my own.  Also the tragacath versus arabic 
difference.  I did bake them on parchment paper and "printed" them.

Alys Katharine