The holidays are over and even the Christmas tree has left the house. Although that’s a bit sad, it also makes room for new experiments in historical cooking! Because our fridge is still overflowing with all kinds of snacks we still need to finish, I wanted to make a recipe consisting of ingrediënts I already have. In the book De Nieuwe, Welervarene Utrechtsche Keuken-Meid from 1771 was a recipe based on Dutch ‘beschuit’. Beschuit is some sort of sliced crunchy bun, which is made by toasting it several times. It’s very airy and light. For this recipe you could also use toasted white bread instead of beschuit. Like probably every Dutch person, I still had a roll of beschuiten in my cupboard. It was an easy and quick recipe, and it only took me 40 minutes to make!
Ingrediënts:
-5 beschuiten or slices of toasted bread
-100 grams of butter
-100 grams of (cane)sugar
-4 eggs
-30 grams of almonds
and/or
-Raisins
-Nutmeg
-Cinnamon
-Two sniffs of salt
-A little bit of milk
-Rose water (optional)
The recipe is quite simple. More recent recipes are more precise and detailed. I was happy to not have to guess that much this time. This was the text in the source:
‘Beschuit-koek met Amandelen, hoe te bakken
Neem 6 beschuiten, stoot ze klein, en maakt ze met wat zoete melk nat; doe ‘er 6 klein geklopte eijeren, met een groote hand vol gestoote Amandelen met wat roosewater, wat gereve nootmuscaat, suiker, gestoote kaneel, en een kommetje gesmolte boter by, en meng het wel door een; smeer dan een Taartepan met boter, en bestrooi ze met gestoote beschuit; dan het beslag daar in gedaan, gestoote beschuit daar over gestrooid, en met onder en boven wat vuur latende gaar bakken. Men kan ook Krenten in plaats van Amandelen nemen.’
Don’t worry about the Dutch source, I’ve put the instructions below! This recipe spared me the trouble the Medieval Custard cake did, and I got it right the first time! I had to figure out the right amount of butter and sugar, but luckily that went well. The cake has a nice winter-y flavor, and combines perfect with your Sunday afternoon coffee! It has a classic Dutch herbal taste.
Baking the Cake
1: Grind the toast or beschuit in a bowl; keep one of them apart. Whisk the eggs in a seperate bowl. Melt the butter in a pan.
2: Take 30 grams of almonds and grind these as well. If you like, let it soak in rose water. The almonds could be replaced by raisins, but you can also add them both.
3: Add a little milk to the toast crumbs. Add the eggs, butter and sugar.
4: Now add the almonds and raisins. Put in the salt, a little nutmeg and cinnamon.
5: Bake for 20-25 minutes in the oven on 160 degrees Celsius.
Enjoy!