SC - My first attempt at a period(ish) recipe. (Very Long!)

[Philip & Susan Troy]

Hi all,

I just made my first attempt at two period(ish) recipes, and would like some 
feed back if you will. :) What I did wrong, ect. 

Both recipes are out of Martha Washington's Booke of Cookery.

The first recipe is on page 320,  recipe 155 in the section of "A Booke of 
Sweetmeats".

'To Make Little Cakes'

Take A pound of wheat flowre twice sifted, a pound of currans, A quarter of a 
pound of sugar, A little nutmeg grated, A little saffron, ye whites of 14 
eggs beaten, A little salt, some rose water.  mingle ye flowre with a little 
sweet and thick cream, and put it into yr saffron, eggs and sugar finely 
beaten. when ye paste is made, beat it well with a rouling pin, and roule out 
part of it thin, then take your currans, nutmegg and rosewater, and lay them 
on your paste, and strow on them a little fine sugar. then roule out ye other 
piece of paste thin, and lay it on the top. then close it together, and cut 
ye superfluous past with a Jagg. thus you may make yr past all into one, or 
into severall little cakes according to yr pleasure.  when they are baked, 
you may Ice them over with a little sugar and rosewater wash'd over on ye 
top, and ye white of an egg beaten with it, and after set them a little into 
ye oven againe, and soe you may Ice your great Cakes.

This is my interpretation.

3 cups flour
1 lb currants
1 / 2 cup sugar
15 medium egg whites
1 tsp nutmeg
3 strands of saffron
1 tsp salt
4 tbsp. rosewater
1 / 4 cup heavy cream.

Sift the flour and the salt twice. Beat 14 of the egg whites, saffron and 
sugar until foamy. Mix the flour with the cream and then add it to the egg 
white mixture.

Mix it into a paste. Spread the paste onto a cookie sheet.  Mix the currants, 
nutmeg and 3 tbsp. of the rosewater and place on top of the paste. Sprinkle 
with sugar. Spread the rest of the paste on top of the currant mixture. Bake 
at 375 F. until brown. 

Wisk 1 tbsp rosewater with 1 egg white and 3 tbsp. of sugar. When the cakes 
are brown, remove from the oven and paint with the mixture then return to the 
oven until glazed.

The original recipe says to beat the paste with a rolling pin, then role out 
part of it thin. What does it mean "beat it with a rouling pin"?  I ended up 
with a paste, more the consistency of muffin batter. There would have been no 
way to roll this out without adding a lot more flour, but that would make it 
a dough, rather than a paste. Am I interpreting this wrong?

I used the measurements for flour that was suggested by the author of the 
book.  She says that a pound of flour amounts to about 3 cups of American 
flour. So I was reluctant to use the amount that I would have to have used to 
be able to roll this out. 

The end product is ok.....its a bit on the tough side, and more bisquity or 
bready than I had anticipated. It certainly isn't what I would consider 
cakelike, though I suspect that a cake in period is not at all what I 
consider a cake. 

It was also very very sticky. Since I couldn't roll it out, I used a spatula 
to spread it onto a cookie sheet layered with tin foil.  When it was 
finished, I had to lift it out off of the sheet with the foil, turn it over, 
and with the aid of a sharp knife, peel the foil off.  Should I have greased 
the cookie sheet?

The second recipe I made, I made because I couldn't bear the thought of 
throwing 15 egg yolks away. 

The recipe is on page 202; recipe number 206 in the section listed as "A 
Booke of Cookery"

To Make Almond [Butter ?]

Take a pinte of cream and ye youlks of 15 eggs and beat them well together. 
then let them boyle, and stir them continually till they are thick. then put 
them in a cloth and hang them up to let ye whey run from them, then take 
halfe a quarter of a  pound of almonds and beat them well in 3 spoonfulls of 
rosewater. then take ye butter out of ye cloth and heat ye almonds therwith 
upon a soft fire with a quarter of a pound of beaten sugar.

1 pint heavy cream
15 egg yolks
2 ounces almonds
3 tbsp rosewater
1 / 2 cup sugar.

I was able to follow the recipe on this pretty closely, and I think I got 
what the recipe intended. It is very much like sweetened very finely 
scrambled eggs, with almonds and roses. I had been envisioning something with 
the texture of yogurt. But the author's description of the recipe does say 
"It is properly a recipe for curds with almonds". I am a little at a loss as 
to what to do with it. I had been thinking that it would be good as a spread, 
but the texture isn't right for that.... and a little goes  a long way. Its 
not something that you would want to make a meal of.