[Sca-cooks] Anybody made Welserins Spanish Pastries?

[david friedman]

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Back in November, Serena da Riva wrote:

>Has anyone attempted the following recipit from Sabina Welserin:
>
>199 To make Spanish pastries
>First prepare a firm dough with eggs and fat and roll it out very thin, as
>long as the table, and sprinkle ground almonds and sugar, butter or fat over
>it and roll it up over itself like a sausage. Afterwards cut it in pieces
>and close up both ends. In this manner make one after the other and turn the
>underside to the top. And bake it in a smooth pan, with fat in the pan. And
>let it bake in a weak heat, with a hot cover over the top, and serve it
>cold.
>
>If so, any pointers? My main sticking point is the fat/flour/egg ratio - I
>don't know where to start! (whimper, whimper - Bear?:)

and got replies from Bear and other people. What struck me was that
this is rather like al-Bagdadi's khushkananaj (13th c.) and may in
fact be related to it, through Islamic influence on Spanish cooking.
The original recipe for khushkananaj is (for our version, see the
Miscellany):
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Take fine white flour, and with every ratl mix three uqiya of
sesame-oil [one part oil to four of flour], kneading into a firm
paste. Leave to rise; then make into long loaves. Put into the middle
of each loaf a suitable quantity of ground almonds and scented sugar
mixed with rose water, using half as much almonds as sugar. Press
together as usual, bake in the oven, remove.
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There is no egg in the dough, and it is baked in long loaves rather
than section, but otherwise seems similar.

Elizabeth/Betty Cook