To Make Fine Bread

This recipe was published in 1587 by Thomas Dawson in the The Good Huswife's Jewell. The original recipe can be found here.

Original Recipe

"Take halfe a pound of fine suger well beaten, and as much Flower, and put thereto foure Egges whites, and being ve∣ry wel beaten, you must mingle them with Anniseedes bruised, and being all beaten together, put into your mould melting the sawce ouer first with a litle butter, and set it in the Ouen, & turne it twice or thrice in the baking." (Dawson)



My Interpretation of the Recipe

Half a pound of sugar equals approximately 1 cup. "And as much flower." Originally, I interpreted this to mean half a pound of flower. So, for my first experiment, I used 1 3/4 cup of flour. I found this to be too much flour for the ratio of 3 to 4 egg whites and ended up having to add in a 5th egg white to make my dough work.

So, my suggested recipe is:

1 cup sugar
1 1/4 cup flour
3-4 egg whites
1 tsp anise seed
1 Tbsp unsalted butter (for buttering your pan)

Preheat the oven to 325ºF. Mix the ingredients together. Bake for approximately 40 minutes.

To watch a step by step instructional video, please click here. Please note that this video is of my first experiment with the extra flour and extra egg white added.