[Sca-cooks] Selene's spice cakes/breads

[Susan Fox]

Not "period" but considering the recipe is from one of the founding 
members of the SCA, maybe it's not so inappropriate.

I don't want to call it "fruitcake" because then people would avoid it.  
I use this batter to glue together all the fruit and nuts I can jam in, 
candied peels and dried fruit.  No citron because I don't like it much 
and neither do my friends.  It keeps pretty well, particularly when 
doused with brandy or rum.

Selene

Recipe:

 SPICEBREAD
[adapted from a recipe by MZB in THE DARKOVER COOKBOOK, 1979 ed.]

1/4 cup soft shortening
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup honey
1 egg
1/2 cup coffee

Mix together.  Then sift in separate bowl:
2 cups flour
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. soda
1 tsp. ginger
1/2 tsp. nutmeg
1/2 tsp. cloves
1/2 tsp. cinnamon

Add to liquid ingredients.  Spread in pan, after adding nuts, raising, 
crystallized fruit or anything else desired, bake till tender and cut 
into bars.  Or add extra flour as desired, roll out, cut into shapes and 
bake. 

Basic Baking Time is 1/2 hour at 350oF.  Adjust for thickness of the 
loaf/biscuits/bars.

Variations:
Instead of coffee:  Sanka, cocoa, other brewed liquids?

Additional spices:  coriander, pepper, galingale, anise, whatever.

Shortenings:  Crisco is good, regular vegetable oil gives a nice soft 
product but nut oils taste better [strongly flavored oils like olive or 
sesame would be odd], margarine will work as would lard [but you have to 
really like lard].

Fresh chopped apples and pears are good in this.  Absolutely any nuts 
and dried or candied fruits are appropriate, and a lot of these make for 
a great Xmas-fruitcake. For a plum pudding steam the batter in a bowl or 
mold for a couple of hours, then flame with brandy.



Stefan li Rous wrote:
> Selene commented:
> <<< My big baking push is this weekend for the Christmas Day for Jews,
> Orphans and Heathens.  Fruited spicebreads [spiked and unspiked], cutout
> cookies. >>>
>
> What are your fruited spicebreads like? I assume these aren't the 
> standard fruit cakes.  Recipe?
>
> <<< I think I need an extra hand or three, any locals with a hankering 
> for
> baking, come on down, take home goodies too.  It's as easy to make four
> cakes as it is to make two. >>>
>
> Yes, but doing that first cake is the problem, especially when there 
> are only two in the household. But it does sound like your spice cakes 
> might keep well, especially if well pickled(?). Can these cakes be 
> done with a hand mixer or no mixer?  Thank you again to those on this 
> list who recommended I get a hand mixer. I really wouldn't have gotten 
> that much use out of a large counter mixer.
>
> If I had made our baronial Yule Revel I had been thinking of making 
> wafers and "snow" again. Hmm. Maybe "snow" would be good on top of one 
> of Selene's spice breads/cakes? (This time I'll have to do better 
> about keeping *all* of the yolks out of the whites).
>
> Stefan
> --------
> THLord Stefan li Rous    Barony of Bryn Gwlad    Kingdom of Ansteorra
>    Mark S. Harris           Austin, Texas          
> StefanliRous at austin.rr.com
> **** See Stefan's Florilegium files at:  http://www.florilegium.org ****
>
>
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