Doucettes - Honey and saffron tarts

Doucettes: From the Harlein collection in the British Library, manuscript 279 (which is 15th century), recipe XV in the "Vyaunde Furnez"/"Dyuerse Bake Metis" section. 

This recipe is one of the most classic and popular tarts ever served at medieval events, and for good reason - when made well they are glorious - lightly sweet and delicate honeyed tarts with a beautiful golden tint. In this recipe I am not going to get into the pie crust itself - that discussion is for another day, but am giving you a nice easy recipe for the contents.  Give it a try!  I use honey rather than sugar because I love that special flavour you get from honey, but you can make it with sugar instead. 

Doucettes -- Take Creme a gode cupfulle & put it on a straynoure; (th)anne take (y)olkys of Eyroun & put (th)er-to, & a lytel mylke; (th)en strayne it (th)orw a straynoure into a bolle; (th)en take Sugre y-now, & put (th)er-to, or ellys hony forde faute of Sugre, (th)an coloure it with Safroun; (th)an take (th)in cofyns, & put in (th)e ovens lere, & lat hem ben hardyd; (th)an take a dysshe y-fastenyd on (th) pelys ende; & pore (th)in comade in-to (th)e dyssche, & fro (th)e dyssche in-to (th)e cofyns; & when (th) don a-ryse wel, take hem out, & serue hem forth."

Doucettes decorated with almonds

Doucettes  -- Take a good cupful of cream and put it through a strainer, then take yolks of eggs and add them to it, and a little milk, then strain it through a strainer  into a bowl. Then take enough sugar, and add it, or honey in stead of sugar, then color it with saffron; then take your coffins(crusts), and put them in the oven empty, and let them harden, then take a dish fastened to the end of your baking peel and pour your filling into the dish, and from the dish into the coffins, and when they rise well, take them out, and serve them forth.

Redaction by Kiriel (for one disposable pie tray)

2 large egg yolks
125mls cream
75ml milk
2 tsp honey
3 strands of saffron

Pre-bake a pie shell. Stir the egg yolks,cream, milk and honey till well blended (don't whisk or beat). Grind your saffron in a mortar and pestle (adding just a quarter of a teaspoon of milk into the pestle can help extract the colour) and add the powder to the liquid ingredients. 

Pour into the hot pie shell and bake in a moderate oven for about 20 minutes to half an hour, until the mixture is set.  If you are unsure about the set, give the tart a very gentle shake - it should wobble just a little. This isn't a very sweet tart, and if you like things to be sweet, you could up the honey a touch. *

What to do with the 2 egg whites? I make macaroons or marzipans!

* ps I am told these freeze and defrost perfectly!

Fine Cakes - English spiced shortbread

This recipe is from "The Widowes Treasure" which was published in 1639. It is pretty much a spiced shortbread, but made, interestingly, with pre-baked flour. This gives them a really beautiful crisp texture.

The original version:
Take a quantity of fine wheate Flower, and put it in an earthen pot. Stop it close and set it in an Oven, and bake it as long as you would a pasty of Venison, and when it baked it will be full of clods.Then searce your flower through a fine sercer.

Then take clouted Creame or sweet butter, but Creame is best: then take sugar, cloves, mace, saffron and yolks of eggs, so much as wil seeme to season your flower. Then put these things into the Creame, temper all together. Then put thereto your flower. So make your cakes. The paste will be very short; therefore make them very little. Lay paper under them.
My version:
1 cup plain flour
90 g butter
1 generous pinch of saffron
3 cloves
1/8 tsp mace
1/4 cup caster sugar
1 egg yolk

Bake flour for 15-20 minutes at 180 degrees, in a closed casserole dish. The flour shouldn't brown, but you will see that it clumps together if you stir it with a spoon.  Allow to cool, then sift.

Grind spices with sugar. Cream butter, sugar/spice and egg yolk till the consistency of thick cream. Fold in flour.  Do not knead the dough. 

I pressed small amounts of this mixture into molds to make flour shapes, which popped out of the mold easily.  One of my apprentices forms them in to small balls and then presses them flat. As the original recipe says, the paste is very short! Bake on baking trays lined with paper for 10-15 minutes at 180 degrees.

*Note: be careful with the mace - depending on the particular mace you have, it can be very strong!