Highgarden Apple Roses

Thoughts:

The people have spoken, and the winner of my recent Twitter poll for the next recipe’s region was overwhelmingly Highgarden. I guess we are all in the mood for some green growing things and flowers after winter, huh? :)

These stunning little show-stopping desserts are actually easier to make than you might guess. You may remember seeing them as part of Margaery Tyrell’s ideal meal from last summer, but I’ve never quite stopped thinking about them since. They’re just beautiful as an addition to a feast spread, but they’re also a nice surprise dessert to a simple dinner.

The variations presented simply by the choice of jelly are numerous- personally, I really love a version with apple cider jelly, but consider also a rosehip jam (perfect for Highgarden), or a redcurrant, or even a thin layer of lemoncurd. Try them out, and see what you think!

Highgarden Apple Rose Recipe

Makes: about a dozen, depending on size

Prep: 45 minutes Baking: 20-25 minutes

Pie dough:

2 cups flour
1/4 cup sugar
1 stick salted butter
cold water

Ingredients:

2-3 apples
1 cup water
splash of cider vinegar
2 tablespoons brown sugar
pinch each cinnamon and nutmeg
3 tablespoons jelly
Powdered sugar, for dusting (optional)

Start off by making your pie dough so it has time to chill: combine the flour and sugar, then rub in the butter until you have only small pieces remaining. Gradually add in the cold water until you have a dough that comes together. Fold over on itself several times to encourage layering, then wrap in plastic and chill for at least an hour.

Preheat the oven to 375°F. Grease a standard muffin tin, and/or a mini muffin tin (I like making at least two different sizes for a nice look on the plate).

Combine the water, vinegar, brown sugar, and spices in a small saucepan over medium-low heat.

Slice each apple in half down the stem end, the scoop out the core using a sharp knife or the small end of a melon-baller. Slice the apples as thin as you can, then pop them into the prepared pan on the stovetop to keep them from browning. Stir the apple slices as you cook them for around 5-10 minutes, until they are starting to turn translucent but still hold their shape. Strain them out of the pan, and set aside to cool somewhat.

Take the pie dough out of the fridge and roll out half at a time on a lightly floured surface to about 1/4″ thick, and about 10″ wide (you can do shorter strips, or cut long strips in half if using a mini muffin pan). Cut into long strips about 1 1/2″ wide. Spread a very thin layer of jelly on each strip, then begin layering the apple slices on the top half of each strip, as below:

Fold the bottom of the strip up over the top, then gently coil the apples and dough into a cinnamon roll shape, which should give you that lovely rose shape on the top. Move each finished rose to the prepared muffin pan, then continue until all the dough and apples are used up.

Bake for around 25-30 minutes, or until the dough starts to turn golden. These apple roses are best served warm, and are also delicious with a little ice cream or custard sauce on the side.

Apple Rose with custard and redcurrants

Roasted Quince

Thoughts:

When I recently posted on Facebook about finally snagging some quinces at the grocery store, a number of you chimed in with suggestions, ideas, and thoughts about how best to enjoy these quirky fruits. But one simple description stuck with me: baked with heavy cream. I just had to make it, so thanks, Lydia! :)

The result is a tender and easily prepared dessert. Rather than bringing the dish down, its simplicity speaks through the ages, especially in a day and age when dessert has been largely relegated to something ordered in restaurants, where it is fancy and complicated (don’t get me wrong- I always order dessert!). But why stop there? It would also make a divine breakfast for a lazy weekend morning. When prepared this way I don’t think the fruit itself has as much flavor as an apple, but it has a bit more body, which perfectly showcases the array of toppings. The nuts offer a counter-texture with their crunchiness, and the honey and cream elevate the whole thing to something just shy of showy. In short? It’s delish!

So, the next time you spy quince in the store, grab ’em, and give this a try!

Where in Westeros?

Just about anywhere, I’d suspect. Can’t you just see the children at Winterfell tucking into this after a morning playing out in the snow? Or the ladies in King’s Landing while they titter about the latest court gossip? The variety of toppings is endless: walnuts in the north, pistachios in the south, and perhaps even more exotic additions from across the Narrow Sea in port cities. It’s a lovely cold weather dish, and let me tell you: it makes Winter a whole lot more appealing!

Recipe for Roasted Quince

Ingredients:

2-3 quinces, sliced in half and cored
2 Tbs. salted butter, room temperature
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
2 Tbs. brown sugar
1/4 cup each pistachios, walnuts, chopped small
honey and heavy cream, to serve

For the baking dish:

1 cup water
2-3 bay leaves

Preheat the oven to 350F. Place the quince halves, cut side up, in a baking dish. Cream together the butter, cinnamon, and brown sugar, then divide the mixture evenly between the fruits. Pour the water and bay leaves into the baking dish around the fruit, and move to the oven. Bake for around an hour, or until the fruit is soft when poked with a fork or skewer.

To serve, carefully move the hot quinces to serving plates. Top with the chopped nuts, then pour over a bit of honey and heavy cream. Enjoy!

Gooey Apple Rolls with Caramel Sauce

Thoughts:

Every now and again, I get recipe suggestions from readers, and when they’re good, I like to share them, too. My notes from over a year ago say that this one comes from FB reader Karyn,

And it is definitely a winner.

Dear readers, this is a recipe well worth making. The gooey warmth of the straight-from-the-oven rolls as you pull them apart is so comforting. Although it took me ages to try these out, it has actually become a staple here at The Inn, especially when overnight guests merit something a little special for breakfast.

One serious perk of this recipe is that it has the feel of cinnamon rolls, but the advantage of being a relatively last minute dessert, since it requires no time at all for the dough to rise, something that is often the downfall of my very good breakfast intentions.

Where in Westeros?

Honestly, anywhere I can still eat them.

But they strike me as a more northern dessert, with their hearty richness and apples. It’s a simple dish, at the end of the day, but filling and delicious. Because cinnamon is the only spice used, that could reflect the distance from bustling trade ports of the dish’s point of origin; spices in the medieval period in Europe were expensive ingredients, and I can only assume the same would be true of Westeros.

Recipe for Gooey Apple Rolls

Dough recipe:

2 ¾ cups flour
4 ½ tea spoon of baking powder
1 tsp of salt
2/3 cup of butter
1 cup of milk
3 cups of finely minced apples
1/4 cup cinnamon sugar

Sugar bouillon recipe, simmered for 5 minutes

2 cups of water
1 cup of brown sugar

Brown Sugar Glaze:

1 cup brown sugar
2 Tbs flour
1 cup milk
1 Tbs butter
a dash of vanilla

Begin by mixing up the dough: add together the flour, baking powder, and salt, then rub in the butter. Gradually work in the milk until you have a dough that has completely come together. Knead for a few minutes, then roll out on a lightly floured surface into a long rectangle about 1/4″ thick. Spread the minced apples over the dough, sprinkle with cinnamon sugar, and carefully roll the whole thing up, making sure to keep the apple bits as evenly distributed as possible throughout the roll.

Preheat the oven to 425F. Heavily butter a baking pan, probably around 9″x13″ or thereabouts. Make up the sugar bouillon by gently warming the water and sugar over medium heat until the sugar has dissolved. Remove from heat and allow to cool. Cut the rolled dough into slices roughly 1″ thick and lay in the pan, cut sides up. Continue until all the dough is used up (although ever since I can remember, I’ve eaten those little knobbly end bits that are obviously too ugly to be included… ). Pour the cooled sugar bouillon evenly over the rolls, and bake for around 25 minutes, or until the tops of the rolls are a nice golden color.

While the rolls are baking, make up the Brown Sugar Glaze. In a pot over medium-low heat, mix together the brown sugar and flour until the sugar is melted. Then add in the milk, butter, and vanilla. Bring up to a simmer for several minutes to thicken, then remove from heat.

Serve the rolls with a good drizzle of this glaze over top. It would also be great with a dollop of ice cream, and while I personally don’t care for nuts in baked goods, I can recognize that they would be a fantastic addition to this recipe!

Maple Snow Candy

Today, we’re going back to Winterfell, and apparently so is the rest of the East Coast. When life gives you a March blizzard, the only thing to get you through is to eat. I’m very much a proponent of eating your feelings, and since we’d nearly gotten rid of all our snow, and are now facing up to 2 feet more today, I’m just going to go on eating until it melts.

Starting with these:

If you haven’t ever encountered this, the idea is you boil down maple syrup and drizzle it over hard packed snow, which then sets it. These end up being a bit like maple candy lollipops, or like a hard taffy that melts in your mouth. And oh man, are they delicious.

Can’t you just see them being a seasonal treat when the Winter Town opens outside Winterfell? The young Stark children running about with the children of Ned’s bannermen, all of them with sticky hands and smiling faces. It’s a happy picture, and I don’t know about you, but I could use a little of that on such a murky, snowy day!

Maple Snow Candy Recipe

Components:

1/2 cup maple syrup (or lots, lots more)
candy thermometer
popsicle sticks
a dish of packed snow

Pack some fresh, clean snow onto a pie plate or a baking sheet, and set outside (or in the freezer) to keep it cold.

Pour your maple syrup into a saucepan over medium-high heat. Put the thermometer in, and bring the syrup up to soft-ball stage, about 235F. Take it right off the heat and drizzle it over the packed snow. Stick a popsicle stick in one end of the drizzled sugar and twirl into blobs. Eat, and be happy.

Pomegranate Syrup

Pomegranate Syrup, poured over lemon sorbet

Thoughts:

I hadn’t realized until someone asked me recently online if I had a good pomegranate recipe that I was, in fact, completely lacking any such thing. I use pomegranate seeds a lot as a garnish in photos, and love to snack on them, but as far as cooking? Nada. So, I started to look around for what I could do with the stuff, and settled on this super easy recipe for starters.

This delightfully simple syrup packs a heck of a flavor punch! It’s as good on meats and salads as it is on desserts, or even mixed in with drinks, both hot and cold. The syrup is pucker-worthy in its tartness, but that’s part of its glory. While the consistency is thick if you cook it for the full time, it’s still pourable, which means you can deploy it on any delicious edible you like. Rim of a martini glass for an ominous looking cocktail? Check. A simple glaze atop a cake? Check. Personally, I consumed all of mine on several successive dishes of lemon sorbet, and have approximately zero regrets about it.

Where in Westeros?

I would immediately put it down in Dorne. Pomegranates are a common ingredient in Middle Eastern and Mediterranean cuisine, both of which resemble their Dornish counterpart. It would likely have worked its way up the trade routes to King’s Landing, as well, where those with wealthy cooks could enjoy it any number of ways. Pomegranate lemonsweet to help relax on sweltering days in the capital? Yes please!

Pomegranate Syrup Recipe

Cook’s Note: While you can certainly juice your own pomegranates, I find the process to be hugely messy, and have yet to accomplish it without staining some garment or another. Instead, I buy the smallest bottle of pomegranate juice at the store, and go from there.

Ingredients:

2 cups pomegranate juice (about 4 pomegranates)
4 Tbs. raw sugar or honey
Optional additions: a little ground pepper/grains of paradise, lemon juice, mint, etc.

Combine the ingredients in a saucepan, and cook over medium heat for 30-40 minutes, stirring occasionally. The sauce should reduce and thicken as it cooks, and further thicken when it’s cool. If serving over frozen desserts, allow the sauce to cool at least an hour before serving.

For easy deployment, just use it any way you would use balsamic vinegar. If you manage to not eat it all at once, store the remainder in the fridge.

Helva

To celebrate the release of the Dornish eCookbook, From the Sands of Dorne: A Feast of Ice & Fire Companion Cookbook, here’s a quick and easy recipe that didn’t quite fit in the new book: Helva. It’s essentially sort of like a Middle Eastern shortbread, with butter, flour, sugar, and in this case, just a bit of tahini. I first encountered Helva while living in Turkey, and have very fond memories of skimming a little of the warm confection from the top of the cooling pan when my host-mother wasn’t looking.

The flavor is simple, but delicious, with the rich buttery goodness of a shortbread, plus a little nuttiness added by the tahini. I (somehow) held onto a few of mine for several days, and while they began to harden, they were no less delicious. I could see these being fast favorites not only in Dorne, but also beginning to creep their way up to the capitol and over to Highgarden.

Helva Recipe

Ingredients:

1 stick salted butter
1/2 cup flour
1 Tbs. tahini
1/2 cup sugar
pine nuts for garnish (optional)

Make a roux with the butter and flour over medium heat. When it starts to turn a slightly pinkish golden color, remove from the heat. Add in the tahini and sugar, and stir to completely combine. At this point, the mixture should start pulling away from the sides of the pan.

Using two large soup spoons, scoop up a portion of the mixture. Holding one spoon in each hand, press the bowls of the spoons together, squeezing out any excess mix. This should create an oblong shaped piece of helva. Repeat until all the mixture has been used up.

If you like, press a pine nut (or other nut of your choice) into the top of the helva discs while still warm. Helva will keep for several days, unrefrigerated.

Chocolate Wax Seals

I have some eclectic hobbies.

Granted, there are a number of perfectly good reasons I might have a rather sizable collection of sealing wax and seals. I do run a quasi-medieval blog, after all. But if I’m honest, it’s partly just that I’m addicted to the things. They are seriously cool!

So while planning for Valentine’s day this year, I began to wonder… Could I make chocolate “seals” the same way I do with wax? Short answer: Oh. Yes.

Now, you have to understand something about Valentine’s Day in my family. Growing up, it was second only to Christmas in terms of scope. As I got older, it definitely outpaced birthdays. I’m told that a lot of people find this odd. I mean, Valentine’s Day is supposed to be about romantic love, isn’t it?

Well, I think it should be about all kinds of love, whether it’s Platonic, romantic, long-distance, slightly awkward, familial, or, ah…

Then again, maybe not…

Whether you celebrate your love for your kids, extended family, spouse, neighbors, or just your cat, just make sure you make the day a special one!

Where in Westeros?

As I said above, chocolate is a non-entity in Westeros, but this concept is still sound. Medieval desserts often included foods that had been pressed into molds, or shaped in a variety of ways. This included marzipan, quince paste, sugar paste (like fondant), and more… I imagine something like this being served at special feasts, such as for weddings or coronations, perhaps with little house sigils on them?

Chocolate Wax Seals

Ingredients:

1 cup semisweet chocolate chips
edible gold dust (optional)

You’ll also need:

brass wax seals (the more, the better)
a pan full of snow, or a bowl of water filled with ice
paper towel
pan lined with parchment paper

Set up a double boiler on your stovetop: fill a saucepan with about an inch of water, and place a glass bowl over top; the bottom of the bowl should not touch the water. Place your metal seals into the snow or ice water to chill.

Pour 3/4 of the chocolate into the bowl, and turn heat up to medium. Stir gently with a spatula until the chocolate is all melted, then add the remaining 1/4 cup chips. Turn the heat down and stir to incorporate these last chips as they melt. This helps temper the chocolate so it looks and feels better when you are done with it.

When all of the chocolate is completely melted, spoon very small dollops onto your parchment paper. For standard sized seals, a dollop about the size of a nickel should do. Place a handful of these, then wait patiently for a minute or so while the chocolate begins to cool. Then take your chilled seal, dry it with paper towel, and gently place it onto a chocolate dollop. Leave it there! If you try to remove it immediately, as is generally possible with sealing wax, you’ll end up with a gooey, sticky mess. Instead, watch the edge of the chocolate carefully. When it begins to change from glossy to a more matte appearance, give the seal a little wiggle. If it comes loose, great! If not, try giving it a little more time for the chocolate to fully cool. If that still doesn’t work, then your chocolate was probably too hot when you applied the seal. Wash the seal off, chill, and try again.

This will take a few tries to get the hang of , so stick with it! When you have done as many seals as you have chocolate, let them all cool. If you would like to brush them with edible gold dust, I found that adding a little bit of water to the dust helped me control where it went.

The finished seals are great decorations on cookies, cupcakes, or any other dessert you might think of for a special occasion. Best used within a couple of days, and should be kept cool so they hold their shape.

Hildegard’s Happy Cookies

“Nutmeg has great heat and good moderation in its powers. If a person eats nutmeg, it will open up his heart, make his judgment free from obstruction, and give him a good disposition. Take some nutmeg and an equal weight of cinnamon and a bit of cloves, and pulverize them. Then make small cakes with this and fine whole wheat flour and water. Eat them often. It will calm all bitterness of the heart and mind, open your heart and impaired senses, and make your mind cheerful. It purities your senses and diminishes all harmful humors in you. It gives good liquid to your blood, and makes you strong.” -Hildegard von Bingen, Physica, ~1153

Thoughts:

For those who haven’t heard of her, Hildegard von Bingen was a nun of many talents who lived during the 12th century. Amidst composing music, founding monasteries, and apparently receiving visions from on high, she also wrote a treatise on diet, which is a fascinating read. In that, she lists the good and bad qualities of various ingredients, and how best to consume them for health.

I stumbled on these cookies by accident while looking for new recipes to try. If you search for them online, you’ll find many modernized versions that are likely quite tasty. However, as you know by now, I am a stickler for staying as true as possible to the original recipe. So when Hildegard says combine spice, flour, and water, then that’s what I do. Although, I’ll admit that when I tried the dough, I capitulated to my tastebuds and added a bit of raw sugar, too. Don’t worry, though. Hillie thought that sugar was “refreshing”, so I think she’d approve.

The resultant cookies, or cakes, are sort of like hardtack. Like… a healthy hardtack. They were not especially appealing when I first began to nibble on one, but the aftertaste is full of warm spiced goodness. While it’s certainly possible that HvB left out more common ingredients, figuring that anyone reading would know to add them (often done in historical cookbooks), I’m inclined to think that she meant them to be a little bland, despite the spices.

I mean, doesn’t this just seem like something a medieval nun would prescribe for someone with the blues? Plus, the lack of eggs and butter means that these would last almost indefinitely, a definite perk when dealing with expensive imported spices. I made mine with a lovely Irish wholemeal flour, combined with a bit of spelt flour. This gave it a rustic, flaked texture that holds together well, even when being toted around the house as a snack.

I can’t vouch for the purported healthy side effects, but so far, I’m a grudging fan. I also found that a nice dollop of thoroughly modern peanut butter and honey went delightfully well with the cookies. Just saying…

Where in Westeros?

I imagine that such quasi-medicinal foods might be the purview of the Maesters, or possibly the Sept, but that last might just be my mind associating septas with nuns…

Recipe for Hildegard’s Happy Cookies

Ingredients:

2 tsp. cinnamon
2 tsp. nutmeg
1/2 tsp. clove
2 cups flour (including 1/2 spelt, 1/4 almond)
2 Tbs. raw sugar
water enough to moisten

Combine all dry ingredients, then add just enough water to bring the mix together into a workable dough. Roll this out on a floured surface to about 1/4″ thickness, and cut into desired shapes. Arrange on a cookie sheet.

Bake cookies at 350F for around 15 minutes, or until they are mostly hard.

Elderflower Fritters

Thoughts:

Elderflowers are one of those fantastic yet often overlooked ingredient. They are far less popular in America than in Britain, where they the flowers are used culinarily and to make cordials, while the berries are incorporated into a wild array of recipes. The fritters seem to fit very well with the Reach, and Highgarden, where they have such bumper crops of fruits that they wouldn’t need to worry about nipping the berry crop in the bud.

I’m lucky enough this year to have my own elderflower bush, so of course I knew I would have to make something from it. I’ve battled a variety of insects throughout the spring to safeguard my crop, and the blossoms are right at their peak. I recalled a recipe I’d seen in the Opera of Bartolomeo Scappi, one of my favorite historical cookbooks, for elderflower fritters. Done, and done.

The modern versions are aesthetically much prettier, in part because they keep their original shape, which is pretty photogenic. The batter is a variation on the one I used for the Apple Crisps, making a fritter that is light and crispy. The flavor is just slightly floral, and not unpleasant, even to one who doesn’t usually like floral-flavored things *guiltily raises hand*, while the sugar on top gives it a great little crunch.

The medieval version, I’m sorry to say, was a total flop. Granted, I tried to make them for the first time in a terrible hurry the day before leaving home for an overseas wedding, so the deck was somewhat stacked against them. But I’d been keen to try them since first reading the recipe. That recipe instructs one to scoop balls of the mixture into hot butter or lard, which leads to the first two problems: 1. the batter was far from scoopable, and 2. butter burns pretty easily, even when clarified. By the end, I didn’t have a single medieval fritter that was edible, but I could sense the hint of what they should have been. I’ll give it another try next year, or perhaps with dried elderflowers in the off-season.

Modern Elderflower Fritters

Cook’s Note: Bonus Points if you can get a hold of an elderflower cider, such as Angry Orchard makes! Also, try using smaller clusters of flowers for easier frying and eating.

Ingredients:

1/2 bottle sparkling hard cider (6 fl. oz)
pinch of dry yeast
pinch of salt
zest of 1/2 lemon or orange
1 cup flour
6 elderflower blossom clusters, or more, as desired
oil for frying (I used canola)
sugar, for sprinkling

Mix together all ingredients except the elderflowers and oil, tweaking as necessary, until you have a nice runny batter. Bring the oil up to a nice medium heat. Gently dip a cluster of elderflowers into the batter, holding the stem upright. You can wiggle it around until all the blossoms are covered. Let any excess batter drip off, then carefully lower the battered flower into the hot oil. You should be able to cook each fritter almost entirely on this side, although you may find flipping it to finish the top side is helpful. When the fritters are golden brown, remove to a plate lined with paper towels to drain. Sprinkle with some sugar, and enjoy!

Medieval Elderflower Fritters

Cook’s Notes: This recipe was a flop for me. I’ve included the list of ingredients in case you’d like to give it a go yourself! The instructions can be found on Google Books… I’d love to hear how yours turns out!

Ingredients:

1 lb. creamy cheese
1 lb. ricotta
3 oz. breadcrumbs
4 oz. sugar
6 eggs
3 oz. elderflower, soaked in milk
flour

Spruce Tip Shortbread

Thoughts:

Shortbread, no matter how you cut it, is awesome. Rich, buttery, flaky. It’s made for a nice afternoon break with a steaming mug of tea and an enticing book. In this recipe, the spruce tips give the shortbread the slightest lemony kick, with just a hint of conifer. They’re rustic, delicious, and a little too easy to eat. I’ve been wanting to try out a few recipes with spruce tips for a few years now, but the season always seems to sneak by me.

For those who don’t know, spruce tips are those soft, light green new growths on spruce trees. Fortunately, at the new house there are several spruces well over a hundred feet tall. There’s no ignoring those. Even so, this post comes at the tail end of the season, even up here in Vermont. I apologize for that- I’m bad at getting foraging posts up in a timely manner! Hopefully you will remember these next spring…

To me, this shortbread fits perfectly with the cuisine of Winterfell. It’s a little too luxurious for Castle Black, although they need as much anti-scurvy greens as they can get. But can’t you just see the Stark kids of yesteryear nibbling on these tasty rounds? With a side of small beer? Because I definitely can.

What about you? Have you made anything with spruce tips?

Spruce Tip Shortbread Recipe

Ingredients:

1 stick butter, room temperature
1/3 cup cane sugar
1 cup flour
1/4 cup finely chopped fresh spruce tips

Preheat oven to 325. Beat the butter and sugar together, then add the remaining ingredients, mixing until it’s crumbly. You may need to fiddle with the proportions a bit- too soft and the shortbread will melt, but too dry, and it won’t hold together. Chill for at least an hour. Lightly dust a work surface with flour. Roll out your dough to about 1/4″ thick, and cut into shapes with cookie cutters (Christmas tree cutters would be cute- I didn’t think of that). Place the shortbreads on a parchment paper lined baking sheet, then bake for around 20-25 minutes, or until the tops are just starting to turn golden. Let them cool slightly before gobbling. Enjoy!

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