Category: not medieval

Not really period: lemon Frangipane tarts

My Frangipane enthusiasm remains undiminished, and this weekend I decided to play with the flavors a bit. I added a bit of fruit preserves to the bottom of each tart — some quince, some tart cherry — and made the Frangipane with lemon juice and zest. I also went with a very rich modern pastry for the crust, and because I believe in gilding the lily I served them with a dollop of fresh whipped cream. Although it’s not rooted in history, here is the recipe if you’d like to make your own.

Pastry:

  • 12 ounces flour
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 1 tablespoon sugar
  • 2 sticks butter
  • 4 tablespoons water

Preheat oven to 350F. Mix together the dry ingredients, then cut and rub in the butter until mixture is crumbly (looks like breadcrumbs or coarse wet sand). Add the water and mix gently to bring together. Divide into 8 pieces and roll out. Line 8 small (4″) tart pans or ramekins (as pictured here) with the pastry and trim the edges. (Mine slumped — leave a bit of overhang to prevent that.) Prick the bottom of each crust gently all over with a fork, then line each with parchment paper and fill with weights or dry beans. Blind bake for 15-20 minutes, until pastry looks dry all over.

While the pastry blind bakes, prepare the filling:

  • Optional: 8 teaspoons jam / preserves, set aside
  • 4 ounces sugar
  • 4 ounces softened butter
  • 4 ounces finely ground almonds / almond flour
  • Juice and zest of one medium lemon
  • 2 eggs
  • Pinch of salt

Cream together butter and sugar. Add ground almonds and salt and mix well — it should look pale and fluffy. Add the lemon juice and zest and eggs and beat enthusiastically until everything is well incorporated.

Once the crusts have come out of the oven and cooled enough to remove the weights and parchment, spread a teaspoon of jam or preserves in the bottom of each, then top with the almond mixture. Be careful not to overfill (hence splitting the recipe between 8 small tarts). Bake tarts for 30 minutes. Let cool prior to serving.

Verily, Thou Canst Blog

Here’s a written version of the class I just gave on blogging in the SCA. Enjoy!

Why?

  • Advantages of blogging
    • Educate others. For me personally this has been really meaningful and satisfying. This I believe: 1) Period food is yummy! 2) Authenticity is achievable! These deeply held beliefs inform how I approach blogging, and I’ve found that I’ve been able to spread my message, as it were, much farther through blogging than I could have done through more traditional means.
    • Improve your work, research, and writing. Again, speaking from personal experience, I had never entered an SCA competition when I started blogging, and this was a way for me to figure out how to write SCA documentation in a “lower stakes” environment.
    • It’s fun! I meet people at events who read my blog, I make myself laugh, and more. Blogging is just neat.
  • Types of SCA blogs

 

How to Get Started:

  • Decide what you want to write about, pick a platform, and do it!
  • Platforms:
    • Blogger (formerly blogspot) — www.blogger.com
      • Through Google now, this used to be basically the only game in town if you wanted to blog. I used to use blogger but moved away from it due to ongoing frustrations with the commenting features and just feeling like I had outgrown it.
    • Tumblr — www.tumblr.com
      • Technically a “microblogging” platform, Tumblr is ideal for connecting to others writing about similar topics; you can easily re-share (with built in attribution) something someone else has shared, kind of like Twitter. Tumblr is very social and often image-heavy. I haven’t seen a lot of SCAdians using it, but that doesn’t mean there’s not potential there.
    • Livejournal — www.livejournal.com
      • Livejournal makes me feel old. Back in my day… Anyway, Livejournal was really one of the earliest “blogging” platforms, before anyone thought of what they were doing as blogging. There’s a surprisingly large SCA community on Livejournal, still. LJ is great for connecting socially and for more “diary-esque” writing, but otherwise does not do most of the things I think people want out of blogging.
    • WordPress — www.wordpress.com
      • This quickly became the standard platform for nearly all bloggers. Free basic hosting and multiple options to get more by paying a little money. Easy and elegant. I use WordPress and I pay for my own domain through them; I have been very, very happy with WordPress.
  • Driving traffic to your blog
    • Start by having great content. There’s no point in getting people to your blog if you don’t have anything to offer them once they’re there. Write interesting articles, post good photos, cover topics that are relevant to SCAdians, give instructions for how to make something, showcase your research. Make it good!
    • Post regularly. I am really bad about this, but it is really important if having a dedicated readership / lots of views is important to you, or if you are thinking you’d like to turn your blogging into a professional endeavor. Posting on a schedule is one of the best things you can do to take your blog to the next level. Like I said, I don’t do this well, but I know it makes a difference.
    • Tell people about it. Print business cards to bring to events. Insert your blog name into every conversation (sorry, friends). Post links to related Facebook groups (sorry). If you use Pinterest and Twitter, you can start to build a “brand” that matches your blog; I Pin lots of things about the SCA and the Middle Ages, so my blog links fit seamlessly into that. I’m laurelfactorial (my mundane name is Laurel) on Pinterest, FYI.

If you have an SCA blog, feel free to post a link in the comments. I’d love to build my reading list!

If you have an SCA blog, feel free to post a link in the comments. I’d love to build my reading list!

Just for fun: my Jas. Townsend and Sons wishlist

I’m a big fan of Jas. Townsend and Sons, in particular their historical cooking blog and their 18th cooking videos on YouTube. Although they are post-medieval, a lot of the tools they sell work well for medieval and renaissance cooking. Mostly for my own amusement, here’s my current wishlist of items I covet from their catalog: Part 1: things I really need / might actually buy in the foreseeable future:

  • Birch twig whisk — does what it says on the label
  • Linen towel (for boiled puddings!)
  • Hardwood masher which they specifically note can be used as a pie dolly! I was poking around their website and wondered if they had a pie dolly, then I discovered this, and my little heart went all a-squee.
  • Redware pie pan. It’s for pie! How do I not already own this???

Part 2: things I like, but which would be definite “splurges”

  • American Heritage Chocolate. It’s not medieval at all, but I would love to play around with some colonial chocolate recipes.
  • Redware chocolate pot. Okay, apparently in spite of my claims to the contrary I actually do like chocolate. Again, this one is post-medieval, but I have a deep affection for real hot chocolate made with milk and cocoa (or maybe grated American Heritage Chocolate!), especially when I make it with fresh almond milk and a little cinnamon and some real vanilla bean and okay now I’m drooling.
  • Redware milk pan. I think this would be wonderful for mixing things, especially with the pouring lip.
  • All of the 18th Century Cooking DVDs. YouTube is great but I love these enough that I want to watch them on my actual TV.

Part 3: things that I could only own if I won the lottery:

Hmm… all right, I think the whisk and the masher might be about to be ordered. Anyone have other favorite historical cooking equipment purveyors to share?

Edit: They now offer free shipping in the contiguous US on orders over $30, so I totes just bought myself a whisk and a masher/pie dolly. Maybe I’ll post an “unboxing” video when they arrive! (Ha ha, not really.)