SC - Galette (was - Anyone have any good "period"picnic items recipes ?)

[Decker, Terry D.]

If you are saying all flat round loaves are galettes, I can see the argument
that they stretch back to the Neolithic.  The enriched loaves with fruit and
other goodies are probably more modern a creation, but could easily reach
back into antiquity.  Unfortunately, they seem to be absent from "the
corpus," as is the case with most baked goods.

AS for more apocryphal evidence, the Galette de Dame Carcas celebrates
tricking Charlemagne into lifting his siege of Carcassonne by stuffing a pig
with the last of the wheat in the granary and throwing the fat animal of the
battlements.  The ruse is attributed to the Dame Carcas.  The celebration of
this event appears to begin in the 13th Century, possibly as a reaction to
Simon de Monfort's taking of the city during the Crusade against the
Albigensians.

Historical evidence of Charlemagne's siege has been hard to come by, but
Charlemagne appears to have carried out at least two major campaigns in the
region and the city was at one time under Moorish rule, if I can trust my
sources.

In any event, here is a modern recipe for the Galette de Dame Carcas which
can also be found in the Florilegium.

Bear


Galette de Dame Carcas 

Amount Measure Ingredient -- Preparation Method 
- - -------- ------------ -------------------------------- 
Finely grated zeste or peel of 2 oranges 
1 tablespoon orange juice 
2 teaspoons dry yeast 
2 tablespoons warm water (105 - 110 F) 
2 1/2 cups all purpose flour 
1/2 cup sugar 
1/2 teaspoon salt 
6 egg yolks (room temperature) 
4 oz butter (room temperature) 

1 egg 
1 tablespoon milk 

Place finely grated orange peel in a cup and add the orange juice. Set 
aside. 

Dissolve yeast in 2 tablespoon of warm water (105 - 110 degrees F). 
Blend 1 cup flour, sugar and salt in a bowl. Make a well in the dry 
mixture and pour in yeast mixture. 
Separate egg yolks and add to the mixture one at a time. Stir after 
adding each yolk, pulling flour from the sides of the bowl into the 
mixture. 
The result will be a heavy batter 

Divide the butter into small pieces and drop them into the batter. 
Blend the mixture with twenty strokes of a wooden spoon or rubber scraper. 
Add the orange peel and juice. 
Add enough flour to form a ball which can be lifted from the bowl. 

Knead for about 5 minutes on a lightly dusted surface. The fat content 
of the dough will keep it from sticking. The flour is to keep excess 
butterfat from the surface. DO NOT OVER FLOUR. 
The dough should be soft and elastic, yet able to hold its shape for 2 
to 3 minutes on the work surface. 

Cover the ball of dough with a bowl and let it rise for 30 minutes. 
Press the dough into a circle about 1 inch thick. This recipe will make 
1 loaf about 9 inches in diameter or 2 loaves 6 inches in diameter. 
Place the loaves on an ungreased baking sheet, cover with wax paper and 
let rise for 45 minutes. 
Mix egg and milk. Brush onto the galette. Pierce dough half a dozen 
times with pick or skewer. 
Bake 25 minutes in preheated oven at 400 degrees F. 
Cool galette on a metal rack. 


Note:  25 minutes made the galette a little dry, check at about 20 minutes.

 Galette is the 
> basis for the 
> traditional Twelfth Night Cake (though now it is normally 
> made with puff 
> pastry), and these flat, round cakes have been around (under 
> one name or 
> another) for centuries.  Many scholars believe they date 
> back, in one form or 
> another, to the Neolithic era.  I don't think anyone on the 
> list, or even in 
> the SCA as a whole, will question the appropriateness of 
> what, for all 
> intents and purposes, is a Medieval "Hearth Cake".
> 
> Balthazar of Blackmoor
> (who is willing to bet we could find any number of similar 
> recipes in "the 
> corpus")