[Sca-cooks] Recipe for period gingerbrede
devra at aol.com
devra at aol.com
Wed Sep 9 08:59:25 PDT 2009
Period Gingerbrede, derived from Ruth Frey's redaction out of The Two Fifteenth Century Cookbooks
I actually put in a lot more spice than Ruth did, due to a miscalculation of how much honey I had on hand...
Ingredients
2 C honey (I mixed dark and light - remember it is much denser than water; be sure you have enough before putting in spices)
2 t cinnamon
1 t ginger
.5 t ground long pepper or black pepper
.25 t ground cloves
3-5 threads saffron
4 C dry bread crumbs
Topping
mixed cinnamon and sugar
some bay leaves
Method
1. Bring spices and honey to a boil in a good-sized pot.
2. Turn off heat and stir in crumbs a cup at a time.
3. Spread mix on large rectangle of waxed paper. Top with a similar piece, and roll to approximately .25 inch thickness.
4. Remove top piece of paper, sprinkle with cinnamon/sugar mix, and scroe with sharp knife into 1 inch squares.
5. When cool enough to handle, cut or break squares apart and completely cool on a cookie rack. You may want to turn pieces to dry on both sides.
6. Line a covered, tight cookie can with waxed paper, and place gingerbred therein, sprinkling each layer as you fill with more cinnamon/sugar, and placing 1 or 2 bay leaves on top. Put more waxed paper and continue to layer.
7. Let cookies stand at least a week in a moderately cool room, so that the crumbs can absorb moisture from the honey.
The cookies will vary in texture depending on how hard a boil you bring the honey to. Boiling more than a few seconds may result in tooth-breakers, or bricks that smell very good.
Yu can also make the stuff into small balls and roll in sugar, or use cookie cutters dipped into sugar before cutting out.? This is a nice thing to do with small children - an adult handles heating the honey, and then the kids can take turns stirring in the crumbs, rolling, cutting, etc.
Devra the Baker
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