Awwww

Success!  Today, our last day of class, my students tackled a 1624 recipe for "small cakes" . The recipe with modern instructions can be found here. I divided them into groups of 6 and they each made a half batch. 

Digby’s Tudor Recipe From 1669: EXCELLENT SMALL CAKES

Take three pound of very fine flower well dryed by the fire, and put to it a pound and half of loaf Sugar sifted in a very fine sieve and dryed; Three pounds of Currants well washed and dryed in a cloth and set by the fire; When your flower is well mixed with the Sugar and Currants, you must put in it a pound and half of unmelted butter, ten spoonfuls of Cream, with the yolks of three new-laid Eggs beat with it, one Nutmeg; and if you please, three spoonfuls of Sack. When you have wrought your paste well, you must put it in a cloth, and set it in a dish before the fire, till it be through warm. Then make them up in little Cakes, and prick them full of holes; you must bake them in a quick oven unclosed. Afterwards Ice them over with Sugar. The Cakes should be about the bigness of a hand-breadth and thin: of the cise of the Sugar Cakes sold at Barnet.

The paste is made

After some initial confusion regarding what currents are (raisins), where to get the freshly laid egg from (uh, Trader Joes? yeah, not so fresh), and a bit of confusion regarding oven temp and time, they did a fantastic job. These are very easy to make and taste like a cross between a buttery (not dry) scone and a spiced cookie. Highly recommended. As in I want to make another batch right now. I think these may start showing up at bbqs - definitely if there is a brunch in my future.

The little darlings pre-baking.

Success!!!

As someone who teaches food history, and just generally feels food is very important to history, I've always wanted to combine cooking and a class. This experiment went pretty well, on the whole. There are a few little things I'd change, but they did a great job and it was a fun way to end the quarter. Now grading and then I'm really done! To do the work I've been putting off all summer! Yay! Groan.


Finally, while on food, for my friends who were "treated" to the Engineer cookies after only a few hours of rest, this is what the dough looks like after resting for over 24 hours in the fridge. Totally different cookie: