[Sca-cooks] 9th c. "Melting Moments" Cookies - help, please

[Sandra J. Kisner]

I wouldn't have assumed that the "refined sugar" called for should be modern powdered sugar.  The beating in the mortar is to blend ingredients, not "powder" the sugar, as I see it.

Sandra

-----Original Message-----  [trimmed]

p. 418, Annals of the Caliphs' Kitchens, translation by Nawal Nasrallah

Grind 3 ratls (3 pounds) refined sugar and sift it in a fine-mesh sieve (munkhul safiq). Add 1-1/2 ratls (1-1/2 pounds) fine samidh flour (high in starch and bran free). Mix them well. Add 1/4 ratl (1/2 cup) sesame oil and knead mixture the way you usually do with flour dough.

Put the mixture in a mortar (hawan) and pound it to crush ingredients into each other and help them bind.
<snip>
My modernized version

3 lb. powdered sugar
-- depending on price i'll either buy it cornstarch-free or make my own
1-1/2 lb. pastry flour
1/2 c. (unroasted) sesame oil