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The word "cookie" is derived from the Dutch koekje or little cake. It did not make its first appearance in English until 1703. Before that time, what we would call a cookie was simply a small cake.
Here are several cookie recipes from the 17th-century that you may enjoy trying ( although not all have of these recipes have been tested yet!). GINGERBREAD This confection-type gingerbread dates the Middle Ages, and would be replaced later in the seventeenth century by something more nearly resembling what we call gingerbread. Highly decorative, gilded gingerbread figures of saints and other notable were commonly sold at fairs and other places of amusement; the Puritans thought they smacked of popery. From Sir Hugh Platt's Delightes for Ladies, 1609: Take three stale Manchets (fine wheat rolls) and grate them, dry them, and sift them through a fine sieve, then add unto them one ounce of ginger being beaten, and as much Cinnamon, one ounce of licorice and aniseed being beaten together and searced, half a pound of sugar, then boil all these together in a posnet, with a quart of claret wine till they come to a stiff paste with often stirring of it; and when it is stiff, mold it on a table and so drive it thin, and print it in your molds; dust your molds with Cinnamon, Ginger, and licorice, being mixed together in fine powder. This is your gingerbread used at the Court, and in all gentlemens houses at festival times. It is otherwise called dry Leach. Modern adaptation: 8 oz. fresh white breadcrumbs (about 4 cups) 1 teaspoon ground ginger 1 teaspoon cinnamon 1 teaspoon aniseed 1 teaspoon ground licorice (if available) 1/8 cup sugar 1/2 cup claret wine Dry the breadcrumbs in a low oven (without browning) or in the sun, and add to the remaining ingredients in a saucepan (Note: it is both workable and authentic to replace some or all of the wine with honey). Work the mixture over a gentle heat with a wooden spoon, until it forms a stiff dough. Turn the dough out onto a wooden board dusted with ginger and cinnamon, then roll it out to about 1/4" thick. It may then be impressed with a small stamp (a 1" diameter butter print being ideal for this), and cut into small circles using a pastry cutter. Wooden springerle molds may be used; dust with spices, impress firmly, trim edges and gently knock out of mold. JUMBALS or KNOT BISCUITS This cookie's name, jumble or jumbal, is thought to have been derived from gemel, a finger-ring dividing into two separate loops that was popular at the time. The name gemel came in turn from the Latin word for twin. From Henry Fairfax's Arcana Fairfaxiana, compiled mid-seventeenth century: Take 12 Yokes of Eggs & 5 Whites, a pound of searced sugar, half a pound of Butter washed in Rose Water, 3 quarters of an ounce of Mace finely beaten, a little Salt dissolved in Rose Water, half an ounce of Caraway-seeds, Mingle all these together with as much Flour as will work it up in paste, & so make it Knots or Rings or What fashion you please. Bake them as Bisket-bread, but upon Pie plates. Modern adaptation: 3 tablespoons butter 1 tablespoon rosewater 1/2 rounded cup sugar 2 eggs, beaten 1 teaspoon ground mace 1 teaspoon aniseed 1 teaspoon caraway seed 2 cups flour Beat the butter with the rosewater, then cream with the sugar. Mix in the beaten eggs and spices, then work in the flour to make a stiff dough. Make into long rolls about 1/4" in diameter, and form into knots, rings, or plaited strips before baking on lightly greased baking sheets at 350m for 15-20 minutes. SHREWSBURY CAKES This is a simple shortbread cookie, and the city of Shrewsbury's fame for these cakes was well established by the 16-century. From John Murrell's A Delightfull daily exercise for Ladies and Gentlewomen, 1621: Take a quart of very fine flour, 8 ounces of fine sugar beaten and cersed (sieved), 12 ounces of sweet butter, a Nutmeg grated, 2 or 3 spoonfuls of damask rose-water, work all these together with you hands as hard as you can for the space of half an hour, then roll it in little round Cakes, about the thickness of 3 shillings one upon another, then take a silver Cup or glass some 4 or 3 inches over, and cut the cakes in them, then strow some flour upon white papers & lay them upon them, and bake them in an Oven as hot as for Manchet, set up you lid (keep the oven door closed) till you may tell a hundredth, then you shall see them white, if any of them rise up clap them down with some clean thing, and if your Oven be not too hot set up your lid again, and in a quarter of an hour they will be baked enough, but in any case take heed your Oven be not too hot, for they must not look brown but white, and so draw them forth & lay them one upon another till they be cold, and you may keep them half a year, the new baked are best. Modern adaptation: 1/4 cup sugar 1/2 cup butter 1 cup sifted flour 1 1/2 teaspoons nutmeg 1/2 teaspoon rosewater Cream the sugar and butter together until fluffy. Sift the flour with the nutmeg. Add the rosewater to the sugar-butter mixture, and stir in the dry ingredients only until blended: then chill the dough for 10 minutes. Sprinkle work surface with flour, and turn the dough out onto it. Pat the dough into a ball, then roll it out gently to 1/4" thick. Cut out the cakes with a 2-3" round cookie cutter. Place them on an unbuttered cookie sheet about 1" apart, and bake at 350m until slightly brown around the edges (about 12-15 minutes). Cool on a wire grill, and store in an airtight tin. BANBURY CAKE From Gervase Markham's The English Hus-wife, published 1615: To make a very good Banbury Cake, take 4 pounds of Currants and wash and pick them very clean, and dry them in a cloth; then take 3 Eggs, and put away 1 yolk, and beat them, and strain them with Barm, putting thereto Cloves, Mace, Cinnamon, and Nutmegs, then take a pint of Cream, and as much mornings milk, and set it on the fire till the cold be taken away; then take Flour, and put in good store of cold butter and sugar; then put in your eggs, barm, and meal, and work them all together an hour or more; then save a part of the paste, and the rest break in pieces, and work in your Currants; which done, mold your Cake of whatever quantity you please, and then with that paste which hath not any Currants, cover it very thin, both underneath, and aloft. And so bake according to bigness. Modern adaptation: 2 cups sifted flour 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon 1/4 teaspoon each: mace, cloves, nutmeg 1/2 cup cold butter 1 cake fresh yeast 1/2 cup sugar 2 egg yolks 3/4 cup light cream 1/2 cup currants, parboiled Sift together flour and spices. Add butter and work it into flour until it is like fine meal. In large bowl, mash yeast into two tablespoons of sugar until it liquefies. Add egg yolks, cream, and rest of sugar; beat until blended. Stir the flour-butter-spice mixture into the liquid mixture, then spoon the dough up against the side of the bowl, giving the bowl a quarter turn after each spoonful is raised (this is called spoon-kneading). Knead for 5 minutes. Cover bowl and set it in warm place to rise until dough has doubled in size (about 45-60 minutes). When rising is completed, generously butter a 9-10" cake pan. Stir down dough, spread a thin layer of it in the pan, and set aside enough of remaining dough to make a thin top layer. Add the currants to the rest of the dough, and spread this dough evenly over dough in pan, then cover this with the dough you set-aside for the top layer. Set to rise until the dough has almost reached the top of the pan (about 30 minutes). Bake at 400m for 10 minutes, then lower heat to 350m and bake 25 minutes longer. If cake seems to be browning too fast, cover with kitchen parchment or clean brown paper. When finished, cool in pan for 5 minutes, then carefully turn out onto a grill to finish cooling. Note that this is a delicate cake and breaks easily. WHITE BISCUIT BREAD This is an early recipe for meringues. You may be familiar with a similar cookie, which is filled with chocolate chips rather than aniseed! From Elinor Fettiplace's Receipt Book, compiled around 1604: Take a pound & a half of sugar, & a handful of fine white flour, the whites of 12 eggs, beaten very finely, and a little aniseed bruised, temper all this together, till it bee no thicker than pap, make coffins with paper, and put it into the oven, after the manchet is drawn. Modern adaptation: 2 egg whites 1/2 cup sugar 1 teaspoon flour 1 teaspoon crushed aniseed (or more) Beat egg white, fold in sugar and flour, and beat together until stiff enough to form peaks. Fold in aniseed. Drop small spoonfuls onto lightly greased kitchen parchment. Put into oven and bake at 275m about an hour or more, until set and dried, but not |
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© Copyright 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001 & 2002 The English Civil War Society of America. All rights reserved.
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