Almond Oat Scones

 

2 cups flour, or a gluten-free flour mix
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 tsp salt
2 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 cup butter, frozen
1/4 cup sour cream
1/4 cup milk
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla extract
2/3 cup rolled oats
1/3 cup sliced almonds
extra milk

Whisk flour, sugar, salt, and baking powder together in a large bowl. Grate the frozen butter and cut it into the flour mix until there is no dry powder.

Whisk milk, sour cream, egg, and vanilla extract together in a small bowl. Pour over the flour mixture, add the oats and almonds, then stir to combine.

Line a baking sheet with baking parchment. Dump the dough onto the sheet and press it together into a ball, then press it into a thick, flat disk. Use a dough cutter to cut it into 8 wedges. Pull them apart from each other. Brush the tops with the extra milk. Put the pan into the fridge or freezer while the oven is heating.

Preheat oven to 400 F. Bake for 18-25 minutes.

Dundee Biscuits

 

1 1/2 cups flour
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup rolled oats
1/4 cup butter
1/3 cup milk
1 egg
Sliced almonds

Preheat oven to 400° F.
    
In a medium bowl, combine flour, sugar, and oats. Cut in butter until mixture resembles coarse crumbs.

In a small bowl, beat together milk and egg yolk, then stir into flour mixture.

On a lightly floured surface, roll out dough to 1/2" thick. Cut out biscuits with a 1 1/2" round cutter. Reroll the dough and cut more biscuits. At this size, the recipe should make about 18 biscuits.

Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and place biscuits on it.

In a small bowl, beat the egg white. Brush the tops of the biscuits with egg white, and top with sliced almonds.

Bake for 10 to 12 minutes or until lightly browned.

Apple Pear Pie

1 tsp dried rose petals, hibiscus petals, or similar sweet flower

1/2 cup warm water

1/4 cup raisins, dried cranberries, or other small dried fruit

1 1/2 cups flour

1/4 tsp salt

3/4 cup butter

3 small apples

2 pears

2 Tbls. honey

1/2 cup chopped almonds

Grind the flower petals into a powder. In a small bowl, combine the warm water with the flower petals and dried fruit. Set aside while preparing the filling.

Slice the apples and pears into thin slices, removing the core. Cook the fruit with 1/4 cup butter and honey over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until the apples are soft and butter is melted. Remove from heat. Scoop out the raisins with a slotted spoon and add those to the apple mixture. 

In a medium bowl, stir together the flour and salt. Cut in 1/2 cup of butter. The flower water should be just under 1/2 cup; stir that into the flour to make a paste. Form the dough into a disk, wrap in plastic, and chill.

Preheat oven to 375 F.

When the dough is cold and harder, roll out into a large, thin circle and line a deep-dish pie pan. Set aside any extra dough to make a decorative top. Spread the chopped almonds into a layer on the bottom, then add the rest of the filling.

Bake for 35-40 minutes.

Mixed Nut Butter

2 cups of raw nuts and seeds

1 Tbls oil

optional: 1 tsp salt
optional: 2 Tbls sugar

Preheat oven to 325 F. Spread nuts onto a baking sheet and bake for 10-15 minutes.

Let cool enough to handle. Place in a food processor with the oil and optional salt and sugar. Grind until it becomes a thick paste.

You can use any combination of nuts that you like. For this batch I used peanuts, walnuts, almonds, candied almonds, chia seeds, and a pinch of fennel seeds.

Honey Almond Tart

Crust:

1 3/4 cups flour
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup cold butter, cut into small cubes
1 egg
1/4 cup cold water

Preheat oven to 350° F.

Mix flour and sugar. Cut in butter until there is no dry flour. Stir in the egg. Add half of the water, stir it in completely, then stir in the rest of the water. Chill the dough while making the glaze.

Glaze:

1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup honey
2 Tbls. water
1/4 cup sugar
2 cups sliced almonds

Stir all ingredients except almonds over medium heat, until butter is mostly melted and sugar dissolves. Remove from heat and add almonds.

Divide the dough in half and press each half into a pie or tart tin (9"-10"), pressing it partially up the sides. Pour half of the glaze into each crust.

Bake for 25 minutes.

Basbousa

 

 

Cake batter:
1/2 cup butter
3/4 cup raw sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 eggs
2 cups fine semola
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
3/4 cup plain yogurt
12-15 almonds, halved; or 1/4 cup finely chopped almonds

Syrup topping:

2 cups raw sugar

1 1/2 cups water

1 Tbls fresh orange zest 

1 tsp dried floral tea

1/2 tsp lemon juice

Preheat oven to 300 F. Grease a large cake pan.

In a large bowl, mix the butter, sugar and vanilla until light and fluffy. Add eggs one at a time and beat well.

Mix the semola, baking powder and baking soda in another bowl. Add this slowly into the butter mixture alternately with yogurt.

Spread batter into the cake pan. Put the almonds on top of the cake at equal distances so that when you cut into pieces later, each piece has an almond topping in the center; or sprinkle chopped almonds over the top.

Bake for 30-35 minutes.

For the syrup, dissolve sugar in water over medium heat, add the lemon juice and the rose essence and bring to a boil. Let it boil for 5-7 minutes, then set it in a container filled with cold water to cool the syrup.

When the cake is done, slowly pour the cooled syrup over the hot cake. This works best to keep it in the pan so the syrup can be soaked into the cake. Serve the cake once it is completely cool.

Apothermum

This is an ancient Roman dish.

Makes 2 servings.

1/2 cup farina (if you can't find plain farina, use unflavored cream of wheat or malt-o-meal)
1 cup water
1 Tbls. pine nuts
2 Tbls. blanched almonds
2 Tbls. raisins
1/4 cup prune juice or grape juice
dates
figs
extra nuts of desired variety

Simmer the juice over low heat until it is reduced to half. Set aside.

Over low heat, whisk together the farina and water. Add the pine nuts and almonds. Cook, stirring, until it reaches desired thickness. (I like it really thick and solid, some want it thinner.)

Stir the raisins and juice into the farina.

Mince the dates and figs, and crush the nuts. Serve in bowls with the fruit and nuts on top.


I  got together with Zappy to do some experimental Roman cooking. We were not very satisfied with  the results of the dish apothermum and I immediately began thinking of what to change.

 The recipe we used interpreted apothermum as a pudding. I found a second recipe that considers it a sauce for meat! However, in the original text, apothermum is in the minced dishes chapter, not the sauce chapter. The two different translations are interesting. One recipe comes up with forcemeats, the other says nuts and fruit. (Latin is weird because isn't it all, "We're pretty sure this word means this" because there are no original speakers?)

Here are the recipes:


Pudding recipe

Spelt or Farina Pudding

Apothermum

Boil spelt with Tor. pignolia nuts and peeled almonds1 [G.‑V. and] immersed in boiling water and washed with white clay so that they appear perfectly white, add raisins, flavor with condensed wine or raisin wine and serve it in a round dish with crushed2 nuts, fruit, bread or cake crumbs sprinkled over it.3

1 V. We peel almonds in the same manner; the white clay treatment is new to us.
G.‑V.: and — which is confusing.
2 The original: confractum — crushed, but what? G.‑V. pepper, for which there is neither authority nor reason. A wine sauce would go well with it or crushed fruit. List. and Goll. Breadcrumbs.
3 This is a perfectly good pudding — one of the very few desserts in Apicius. With a little sweetening (supplied probably by the condensed wine) and some grated lemon for flavor it is quite acceptable as a dessert.

For clarification, the blue text in the first recipe are extrapolations added to the recipe by the translator.  The footnotes are also by the translator, and some refer to the text of a different translation.

Sauce recipe
To make Apothermum: Boil spelt with small nuts and blanched almonds. The almonds should previously been have been soaked in water with the chalk used as polish, so that they are perfectly white. To this add raisins and defritum or raisin wine. Sprinkle with ground pepper and serve in a bowl [with prepared forcemeats].

 Latin text:
10. Apothermum sic facies: alicam elixa nucleis et amygdalis depilatis et in aqua infusis et lotis ex creta argentaria, ut ad candorem pariter perducantur. cui ammiscebis uvam passam, caroenum vel passum, desuper ‹piper› confractum asparges et in boletari inferes.

As you see, the first recipe says that it's spelt or farina. Not sure where they're getting the farina bit, but, in my opinion, that would provide a way better texture than the boiled spelt berries that we tried the first time.

I looked up raisin wine to determine exactly what I needed to try for (because I don't use  alcohol), and it's a sweet dessert wine. Defritum is a sweet syrup made by reducing grape juice (hence the translation into "condensed wine").

I like that the second recipe says small nuts, which may not need to be pine nuts. Is "small nuts" the actual ancient Roman name for pine nuts? The translator for the first recipe seems obsessed with pine nuts because he specifies them pretty much anytime nuts are mentioned.

The nuts, fruit, bread or cake crumbs bit from the first recipe is hypothesized by the translator; so apparently no one really knows what the crushed stuff is that goes on the dish. I like the nuts/fruit idea.

I liked it. It is like eating fancied-up cream of wheat, which is basically exactly what it is.

Plum and Almond Cake

12 oz. plums
2 Tbls arrowroot powder
1 cup flour
1/2 cup almond meal
2 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. salt
1/2 cup applesauce
1 egg
1/2 cup milk
1/2 cup honey
1/4 tsp almond extract
1/4 cup chopped almonds

Preheat the oven to 375 F. Grease and flour a 9-inch cake pan.

Remove the pits and roughly chop the plums. Combine them with the arrowroot powder in a small bowl and set aside.

In a large bowl, stir together the flour, almond meal, baking powder, and salt.

In a separate bowl, combine the applesauce, egg, milk, honey, and almond extract. Whisk to blend thoroughly.

Add the wet ingredients to the flour mixture and whisk until just combined.

Pour the batter into the prepared pan. Gently place the plum mixture evenly over the entire top of the batter. Since the plums will displace the batter, it is important to make an even layer as you put it down. Put the plums all the way to the edge. Sprinkle the chopped almonds on top.


Bake the cake for 45-50 minutes, or until a tester inserted in the center of the cake comes out clean.

German Macaroons

3 egg whites
2/3 cup white sugar
1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
1/8 tsp. almond extract
1/4 cup corn starch
1 1/3 cup finely chopped nuts

Preheat oven to 300 F. Warm egg whites over hot water, add the vanilla and almond extract, and best until soft peaks form. Slowly pour the sugar in while beating at high speed. Beat until stiff peaks form. In another bowl, mix together corn starch and nuts. Beat into the egg whites at low speed. Drop by teaspoonfuls onto a greased baking sheet. They don't spread, so you can place them close together on the sheet. Bake for 30-35 minutes. Remove from pan immediately and cool on a wire rack.

Wild Cherry and Meadowcream Pie

Pastry for 2-crust 9-inch pie
1/2 cup honey
3 Tbls arrowroot powder
3 cups various cherries (tart pie, Queen Anne, and black). If using canned, drain syrup
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp ginger
1/4 tsp allspice
Sliced almonds

Preheat oven to 350ºF (220ºC). Prepare the pie crust in the baking tin. Line the bottom of the crust with a single layer of sliced almonds.

Mix flour and spices in large mixing bowl. Stir in cherries and honey. Pour into a pastry-lined pie plate. Cover with the top crust.

Bake for 35 to 40 minutes or until crust is brown and juice begins to bubble.

Serve with Meadowcream.