Source:
England, 16th c.
Recipe by Amy Glier
While testing out this recipe, I discovered the hard way that the water should be boiled and not simmered. I learned that this is also how modern soft pretzels are made. I also played around with shapes, as well as testing out how many times to rotate the jumbles and how long to bake them for while in the oven.
Ingredients
1 3/4 cup flour
1/2 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 Tbsp. aniseed
1 tsp. rosewater for the ends
1 Tbsp. butter for oiling the pan
Method
Preheat the oven to 350°F. Combine the eggs and sugar. Mix in the flour, saving the aniseed for last. Roll dough into 1-inch diameter balls. Then, roll and shape the dough like a pretzel on a floured board. Secure the ends with rosewater. In a large pot, bring water to a boil. Poach the knots for about 30 seconds. They will instantly sink to the bottom of the pot. Use a utensil to free them from the bottom and they will float. After another moment, remove the knots from the water. Then, lay the knots on a towel to dry for about 5 minutes. Butter the baking pan. Once dry, bake the knots for about 20 minutes, turning them over after every 5 minutes. Turn the oven down to 325°F after the first 10 minutes.
To make Iombils a hundred.Take twenty Egges and put them into a pot both the yolkes & the white, beat them wel, then take a pound of beaten suger and put to them, and stirre them wel together, then put to it a quarter of a peck of flower, and make a hard paste thereof, and then with Anniseede moulde it well, and make it in little rowles beeing long, and tye them in knots, and wet the ends in Rosewater, then put them into a pan of seething water, but euen in one waum, then take them out with a Skimmer and lay them in a cloth to drie, this being doon lay them in a tart panne, the bottome beeing oyled, then put them into a temperat Ouen for one howre, turning them often in the Ouen.
Published: 2020-04-08