[Sca-cooks] Period-appropriate cookies and cookie-like substances....

Sun May 22 19:02:32 PDT 2005

Well, there always is Lebkuchen, which is now a Christmas cookie, but it doesn't have to be.

>From Sabina Welserin's 1553 cookbook:

151 To bake good Lebkuchen 

Take first a pound of sugar, a quart of clear honey, not quite a third quart of flour, take two 
and a half ounces of cinnamon, one and a half ounces of cloves, two ounces of cardamom. Cut the
other spices as small as possible, the cinnamon sticks are ground as coarsely as possible. Also 
put ginger therein and put the sugar into the honey, let it cook together, put the flour in a
trough, pour the cardamom into it first, afterwards the ginger and the other spices. 

163 To make Nürnberger Lebkuchen 

Take one quart of honey, put it into a large pan, skim it well and let it boil a good while. Put
one and a half pounds of sugar into it and stir it continually with a wooden spatula and let it
cook for a while, as long as one cooks an egg, pour it hot into a quarter pound of flour, stir it
around slowly and put the described spices in the dough, stir it around slowly and not too long;
take one and a half ounces of cinnamon sticks, one and a half ounces of nutmeg, three fourths of 
an ounce of cloves, three ounces of ginger, a pinch of mace, and chop or grind each one separately
so that they are not too small, the cinnamon sticks, especially, should be coarsely ground. And
when you have put the spices in the dough, then let the dough set for as long as one needs to hard
boil eggs. Dip the hands in flour and take a small heap of dough, make balls out of it, weigh them
so that one is as heavy as the others, roll them out with a rolling pin, and spread them out
smoothly by hand, the smoother the prettier. After that dip the mold in rose water and open it up.
Take four ounces of dough for one Lebkuchen. Be careful and get no flour in the molds or else they
will be no good, but on the board you can put flour so that they do not stick to it. Let them set
overnight. And when you take them to the baker, then see to it that you have another board that is
thoroughly sprinkled with flour, so that it is very thickly covered. Put the board with its
covering of flour into the oven so that the board is completely heated, the hotter the better. 
Take it out afterwards and lay the Lebkuchen on top, so that none touches the other, put them in
the oven, let them bake and look after them frequently. At first they will become soft as fat. If
you take hold of them you can feel it well. And when they become entirely dry, then take them out
and turn the board around, so that the front part goes into the back of the oven. Let it remain a
short while, then take it out. Take a small broom, brush the flour cleanly away from the underside
of the Lebkuchen and lay the Lebkuchen, in the mean time, on the other board, until you have
brushed off the Lebkuchen, one after the other, so that there is no more flour on the bottoms.
Afterwards sweep the flour very cleanly from off the board. Lay the Lebkuchen on top of it again,
so that the bottom is turned to the top. Take a bath sponge, dip it in rose water, squeeze it out
again, wash the flour from the bottoms of the Lebkuchen. Be careful that you do not leave any 
water on the board, then they would stick to it. Afterwards put the board with the Lebkuchen again
in the oven, until the bottoms rise nicely and become hard, then take the board out again. See to
it that two or three [people] are by the board, who can quickly turn the Lebkuchen over, or else
they will stick. Afterwards take rose water and wash them on top with it as you have done on the
underside. Put them in the oven again, let them become dry, carry them home and move them around 
on the board, so that they do not stick. And when they have completely cooled, then lay them eight
or ten, one upon the other, wrap them in paper and store them in a dry place, see that no draft
comes therein, then they remain crisp. 

164 To make a large Nürnberger Lebkuchen 

Take a quart of honey and a quarter pound of sugar, prepare it as for the smaller Lebkuchen, take
one quarter pound of flour and then the spices as follows: one half ounce of cinnamon, one ounce 
of cloves, one and three fourths ounces of nutmeg, four ounces of ginger, one fourth ounce of 
mace. Stir it carefully around, afterwards roll the dough out somewhat. Bake it as for the smaller
Lebkuchen. 

And here is something that almost sounds like a marzipan sandwich cookie:

143 An almond tart 

Take a pound of almonds for an abundant meal, pound them small, pound rose water with it, so that
it does not become oily, and when they are small, then mix one or two egg whites with them. Put
them in a bowl, mix them with the egg whites until they become like a thick pudding, and put some
sugar therein until it becomes very sweet. Take wafers, take rose water and stick the wafers
together. Spread the almond paste as smoothly as possible on it, stick another wafer on top, make 
a thin yellow batter and draw each side through it, then they look as if they are golden. Fry them
in fat or bake them in a tart pan. 

Master Huen has documentation that springerle cookies are period.  I have not seen it or
his recipes, but it doesn't surprise me.

Huette

--- Sue Clemenger <mooncat at in-tch.com> wrote:
> I have a request for the list, if y'all don't mind.  The household of 
> which I am but a humble part has accepted the duty and privilege of 
> providing the repast for the Queen's Tea to be held at Uprising in June. 
>   (Uprising, while definitely a local event belonging to the particular 
> barony that hosts it, is also Artemisia's single largest annual event. 
> Traditionally, on Saturday there is a Queen's Tea and Artisans' 
> Exhibition....)  One of the heads of our household has requested that I 
> bring "cookies," (with us both understanding that this includes anything 
> remotely similar to such things as are modernly called "cookies," 
> including, but not limited to, small cakes, wafres, etc.).
> So...cookies I'll bring.  They need to be from a period source, and they 
> need to be transportable (I live 5 hours away from the group hosting the 
> event).  I'd originally thought of, maybe, Shrewsbury cakes, but those 
> have been done in the past, and I also thought of maybe making something 
> lovely like wafres and snow or angels' food (making the wafres in 
> advance and the snow or angels' food on site), but I'm afraid the wafres 
> wouldn't stand the journey very well.  I could always do shortbread 
> (easy, familiar, travels well), but my recipes are perioid, and I'd like 
> to stick with documentable dishes....
> So....I'm asking for ideas and suggestions. I'm mostly familiar with the 
> English cookbooks, but would certainly love to branch out into other 
> cuisines (German, Spanish, Arab, Italian) if I could!
> Thanks in advance from Maire, who now returns you to your 
> regularly-scheduled Sunday mornings....
> 
> 
> _______________________________________________
> Sca-cooks mailing list
> Sca-cooks at ansteorra.org
> http://www.ansteorra.org/mailman/listinfo/sca-cooks
> 

__________________________________ 
Yahoo! Mail Mobile 
Take Yahoo! Mail with you! Check email on your mobile phone. 
http://mobile.yahoo.com/learn/mail 