Cake Bread

Introduction
This is a re-creation of a recipe from Archimagirus Anglo-Gallieus; Or, Excellent & Approved Receipts and Experiments in Cookery (England, 1658), entitled "Cake Bread".

This is a bread with currants in it, along with a hint of nutmeg, cinnamon, and rosewater.



The Source Recipe
The original text of the recipe is as follows:

"Take one Gallon of flowre, two pound of Currans, and one pound of butter or better, a quarter of a pound of sugar, a quarter of a pint of Rose-water, halfe an ounce of nutmeg, & half an ounce of Cinnamon, two egs, then warm cream, break the butter into the flower, temper all these with the creame, and put a quantity of yest amongst it, above a pint to three gallons, wet it very lide, cover your Cake, with a sheet doubled, when it comes hot out of the Oven; let it stand one hour and a half in the Oven." (Matterer)

Related Recipes
While interpreting this recipe, I also considered the following recipe that appears to be related:

          To make a Cake otherways, from the Accomplisht Cook (England, 1660), #239

          "Take a gallon of very fine flour and lay it on the pastry board, then strain three or four eggs  with a pint of barm, and put it into a hole made in the middle of the flour with two nutmegs finely beaten, an ounce of cinamon, and an ounce of cloves and mace beaten fine also, half a pound of sugar, and a pint of cream; put these into the flour with two spoonfuls of salt, and work it up good and stiff, then take half the paste, and work three pound of currans well picked & rubbed into it, then take the other part and divide it into two equal pieces, drive them out as broad as you wold have the cake, then lay one of the sheets of paste on a sheet of paper, and upon that the half that hath the currans, and the other part on the top, close it up round, prick it, and bake it; being baked, ice it with butter, sugar, and rose water, and set it again into the oven." (May)



Materials
The original recipe calls for the following ingredients:

flour
currants
butter
sugar
rosewater
nutmeg
cinnamon
eggs
cream
yeast

For this recipe, I used Zante currants. In earlier manuscripts, the Zante currants that we know were previously referred to as "raisins of corinth", which are raisins made from the black corinth grape. Over time, these were referred to as currants.

Also, I chose to use salted butter rather than unsalted butter. Medieval butter was salted for preservation. "A typical modern salted butter contains 1-2 percent salt, whereas medieval butter contained 5-10 times as much: according to a record of 1305, 1 pound of salt was needed for 10 pounds of butter, i.e., the butter was 10 percent salt." (Wilson) Although the salt would have been washed out of the butter prior to use, I believe some trace amounts of salt remained in the butter.

Procedure

The original recipe indicates adding all of the ingredients together at one time. First, create the yeast. Next, combine the flour and water. Then, add the yeast to it. Once a dough has formed, then add the other ingredients, saving the currants for last.

Ingredients:

6 cups flour
2 cups water
1 package of yeast
1/4 cup sugar
10 Tbsp butter
8 oz. currants
3 Tbsp rosewater
1 tsp nutmeg
1 tsp cinnamon
1 egg
1/8 cup cream

Here is a video of the bread being made. Put a damp cloth over the bowl for 1 hour. Poke the bread (after it has risen) to flatten it. Roll it out on a floured board with a rolling pin. Divide it and fold it into the two bread pans. Place the damp cloth over the bread pans for 1 hour. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Bake in the oven for 40-45 minutes. Remove from the oven and allow it to cool before serving.

Yield 2 loaves.

Thank you to Master Edouard "Doc" Halidai for your guidance, as well as reviewing and revising my ingredient measurements. Thank you to Master Conal O'Hairt for your advice on bread making.

Bibliography
 
Matterer, James. L. "Cake Bread." 17th Century English Recipes. England: 1658. http//www.godecookery.com/engrec/engrec46.html. 30 October 2019.

May, Robert. "To make a Cake otherways." The Accomplisht Cook. England: 1660. http://www.gutenberg.org/files/22790/22790-h/cook1.html. 30 October 2019.

Wilson, Bee. Consider the Fork: A History of How We Cook and Eat. 2013.

https://books.google.com/books?id=mg4aAdxORk0C&pg=PT130&lpg=PT130&dq=medieval+butter+salted&source=bl&ots=we5jYocPCb&sig=ACfU3U39pEFiwuJuyXMAKaiYiaS4dSO8kg&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiDhNmJ4ZnmAhVQF6wKHeHHAbsQ6AEwDHoECAkQAg#v=onepage&q=medieval%20butter%20salted&f=false. 2 December 2019.

Blackberry Brown Sugar Coffee Cake

This was my first time baking a coffee cake. It smells delicious!

Ingredients:

Cake:
1/2 cup butter
1 1/2 cups light brown sugar
2 eggs
2 cups flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup sour cream (or substitute 1 cup yogurt and 1 tsp baking soda as a lower fat option)
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 cups blackberries

Crumble:
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup flour
1/2 tsp cinnamon
4 Tbsp butter

Glaze:
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 Tbsp water

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Bake for about 45 minutes.

For a video on how I prepared this wonderfully smelling dish, please visit here.

Tuna Noodle Casserole

This is a favorite from my childhood!

Ingredients:
1 small can tuna
1 can cream of mushroom soup
1 small can evaporated milk
12 oz. cheese whiz
1 package of wide egg noodles

For video instructions, please go here. Cook the noodles per the instructions on the noodles' package. Add other ingredients and stir over low heat.

Tuna Noodle Casserole served with peas pictured above.

Homemade Blueberry Muffins

This recipe was new to me. I was interested in trying out something different, as I have never baked with fresh blueberries before.

Ingredients:
1/2 cup butter
1 1/4 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 cups flour
1/2 tsp salt
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 cup milk
2 cups blueberries (1/2 cup mashed with a fork)
sugar for sprinkling on top of muffins

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Follow the video instructions here on how to prepare the dough. Bake for about 25 minutes. Yield: 24 muffins

Green Bean Casserole

This was my first time making Green Bean Casserole. To watch, please visit here.

Ingredients:
3/4 cup milk
1/8 tsp pepper
10.75 oz. can cream of mushroom soup
2 cans (14.5 oz each) cut green beans, drained
1 1/3 cup French fried onions

Stir in 2/3 cup of fried onions with other ingredients. Bake at 350 degrees F for 25 minutes. Stir. Top with remaining 2/3 cup of fried onions. Bake for another 5 minutes, or until onions are golden.

Apple Cinnamon Oatmeal Muffins

I received this recipe from a Mennonite friend and was curious to try it. By the way, the kitchen smells wonderful with the scent of apples and cinnamon.

Ingredients:
2 cups oatmeal
1 cup milk
1 cup brown sugar
1 cup canola oil
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
2 tsp baking powder
2 cups flour

Instructions:
Mix well. Stir in blueberries, raisins, raspberries, chocolate chips, or apples. Applesauce can be used as a substitute for the oil. Bake at 400 degrees F until golden, which is approximately 15 minutes. Makes about 24 muffins.

Please visit here to watch the muffins being made.

Gyngere Brede

Original Recipe for Gingerbread

"Gyngerbrede.--Take a quart of hony, & sethe it, & skeme it clene; take Safroun, pouder Pepir, & throw ther-on; take grayted Bred, & make it so chargeaunt that it wol be y-lechyd; then take pouder Canelle, & straw ther-on y-now; then make yt square, lyke as thou wolt leche yt; take when thou lechyst hyt, an caste Box leves a-bouyn, y-stykyd ther-on, on clowys. And if thou wolt haue it Red, coloure it with Saunderys y-now." (Austin)


Modern Interpretation (** Check the lessons learned before following this recipe.)


1/2 cup honey
1 loaf bread (1 lb.) grated or ground into crumbs
1 tsp ginger
1 tsp cinnamon
1/8 tsp ground white pepper

Bring honey to a boil. Then turn the burner down to a simmer and stir in the bread crumbs, ginger, cinnamon, and pepper. Press the mixture into a greased 8x8 inch pan. After it cools, slice it and serve.

To watch this recipe being made, please visit here. 

Lessons Learned

I followed the recipe provided in the book Pleyn Delit, which calls for 1/2 cup of honey. However, according to Matterer, his recipe calls for 1 lb. of honey (2 cups of honey). Based on the amount of bread crumbs compared to the honey, I believe that Matterer's amount of honey is better than the amount called for in Pleyn Delit. However, the gingerbread is still cooling at the moment, so I will see later if my gut feeling is correct.



Works Cited

Austin, Thomas. "Two 15th c. Cookery-Books." 1888. Harleian MS. 279. https://quod.lib.umich.edu/c/cme/CookBk/1:6?rgn=div1;view=fulltext. Page 35.

Heiatt, Constance B. and Sharon Butler. "Pleyn Delit." University of Toronto Press: Toronto, Canada. 1976.

Matterer, James L. "Medieval Gingerbread." http://www.godecookery.com/ginger/ginger.htm.

Strawberry Tarts

Today was my first time ever making a pie crust, along with my first time ever making strawberry tarts. I made two videos (one of me making the crust and one of me doing the strawberry filling). The videos can be seen here and here.

For the crust, I used the recipe found here. The ingredients include:
2 cups flour
pinch of saffron
1 cup of water
1/2 cup butter
2 egg whites

The original recipe for the crust said, "then make your coffyne after this maner take a little faire water and halfe a disshe of butter and a little safron and set all this vpon a chafyngdisshe till it be hote  then temper your flower with this vpon a chafyngdissh till it be hote then temper your floure with this said licour and the white of two egges and also make your coffyn" (A Propre New Booke of Cokery, 1545). 

Instead of making two large pie shells, I decided to make six smaller shells with this dough. For the baking instructions, I followed the directions here. I continued following the directions on this webpage for making the strawberry filling. The original recipe said, "To make a Tart of Strawberries. Wash your strawberries, and put them into your tart, and season them with sugar, cinnamon and ginger, and put in a little red wine into them." (Thomas Dawson, The Good Huswife’s Jewell, 1596.) The ingredients include: strawberries, 1/4 cup sugar, 1/2 tsp cinnamon, 1 tsp ginger, and 30mL red wine.


After making the dough, as seen in the video, the dough came out looking slimy. So, I put it back in the bowl, added some more flour, and continued to knead the dough until it started to look more like bread dough consistency. Also seen in the video is the second time that I have ever had to separate egg yokes from egg whites. I did great for the first egg, but not so great on the second egg. I fished out as much of the yoke as possible from the second egg. As I do not have weights for baking, I made the crusts without the weights. The dough did not want stay on the sides of the pans.

The remainder of the recipe was simple to follow. The only difficult part was having to change the directions from Celsius to Fahrenheit, along with changing the grams to cups. The tarts are cooling now and will be taste tested tomorrow.

Honey Butter

Today's experiment was making honey butter for the first time. I have enjoyed honey butter at numerous feasts over the years, but never actually made it myself.

The recipe is quite simple: butter and honey. The trick, I found, was finding the correct ratio of honey to butter. According to one mundane website, there should be three times as much butter as there is honey (here's the website). According to another website, there should be twice as much honey as there is butter (here's the website).

I started out with following the recipe for the second website. I had 3/4 cup butter, and so I had 1 1/2 cup of honey. However, after the butter softened and I added the honey, it quickly began to look like honey with a hint of butter. So, I stopped pouring the honey at 1 1/4 cup. After mixing it together and doing a taste test, I decided to add another 1/4 cup of butter to give the mixture more of a one on one ratio.

The butter is now cooling in the fridge. Here's a video to see how I made the honey butter.

I tried to research the history of honey butter, but unfortunately I did not find much. Per one website, there are references to honey butter in the book called Tastes of Anglo-Saxon England by Mary Savelli. Another website provided the 13th century Spanish recipe for a nutty honey butter sauce here.

Snickerdoodle Cookies

This was the first cookie recipe that my mother trusted me to bake on my own when I was a child. It was one of my favorites to make every holiday season!


Ingredients:
1 cup shortening (or margarine)
1 1/2 cup sugar (1 cup brown sugar and 1/2 cup white sugar)
2 eggs
2 3/4 cup flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp vanilla
2 tsp cinnamon
cinnamon & sugar mixture


Preheat the oven at 375º F. Bake for approximately 8-10 minutes (if it's on a light pan). 
Bake for approximately 6-7 minutes at 350º F (if it's on a dark pan)

Remove the cookies from the oven when the edges turn a golden brown.

For the directions on how to bake these delicious cookies, please visit here.

Wafers

Original Recipe

          To make the best wafers, take the finest wheat flour you can get, and mix it with cream, the yolks of eggs, rose-water, sugar, and cinnamon til it be a little thicker than pancake batter; and then, warming your wafer irons on a charcoal fire, anoint them first with sweet butter, and then lay your batter and press it, and bake it white or brown at your pleasure. (Markham)

  (Myers)

Modern Recipe Interpretation

·         ½ cup flour

·         1/3 cup flour

·         1 egg yolk

·         1 Tbsp rose water

·         3 Tbsp sugar

·         Pinch cinnamon

·         Pinch salt

Mix ingredients together well.  Spoon out into a wafer maker and cook to desired doneness.  The wafers will keep for weeks in a sealed, airtight container. (Myers)

History

            “Wafer comes from Old Norman French waufre and French gaufre.  Both words had the sense of honeycomb, and confections bearing that name, including wafers and waffles, are duly so patterned to this day… Le Menagerie, about 1393, gives several recipes: one calls for adding flour, wine, and salt to beaten eggs and placing dough in the amount of ‘a slice of cheese’ between the heated irons.” (Hess)

           

Works Cited

Hess, Karen.  Martha Washington’s Booke of Cookery.  1995.  Columbia University Press:

New York, NY.  P. 154.

“Modernizing Markham.” https://modernizingmarkham.com/2010/12/14/wafers.  30 March

2019.

Myers, Daniel.  “Wafers.”  http://medievalcookery.com/recipes/wafers.html.  30 March 2019.