Who doesn't love trick-or-treating, am I right? I mean candy, costumes what's not to like? But did
you know that before going around a stranger's houses and begging for candy became a thing
the treat of choice was actually cakes, and so that's what we are going to be making
today: a 400-year-old recipe for soul cakes. Traditionally these little cakes are served
on All Souls Day, and they have a fascinating past going all the way back to the time of the druids.
So get ready for some Halloween history this time on Tasting History.
Today's recipe comes from Elinor Fettiplace's "Receipt Book", it was written in the late 16th and
early 17th century but it wasn't put out then as an actual cookbook, rather it was someone's
personal recipes that they compiled and they were passed down the Fettiplace family tree
until they were finally published in the 1980s. To make cakes: "Take flour and sugar
and nutmeg and cloves and mace and sweet butter and sac and a little ale barm, beat your spice
and put in your butter and your sack cold, then work it well all together and make it
in little cakes and so bake them, if you will you may put in some saffron into them or fruit."
So while eleanor doesn't actually call them soul cakes in her book these are the little buns
that would have been served around all sorts of holidays but especially on All Souls Day. So what
you'll need is: one half cup or 120 milliliters of lukewarm ale, make sure to keep it under 100
degrees fahrenheit or 38 degrees celsius or you could kill the yeast. 1 teaspoon of yeast, 3 cups
or 360 grams of flour, one half cup or 100 grams of sugar, four tablespoons of softened butter,
one half teaspoon of salt (only if you're using unsalted butter), one quarter teaspoon of nutmeg,
one quarter teaspoon of clove, one quarter teaspoon of mace, one third cup sack or sherry, one quarter
teaspoon of saffron threads (optional) and three quarters cup dried fruit, plus more for decoration.
Now the fruit is optional as well as is how you use it. You can actually put it into the dough
or you can use it as decoration, or you can do as i'm going to do and use it as decoration and have
it put into the dough. Just make sure that it's cut up small so you can use whatever you want,
cherries, or currants, or apricots or whatever but make sure they're cut up small so they incorporate
well. You can also have an optional egg for an egg wash. Now while Ms. Fettiplace gives us permission
to add either saffron or fruit, I've always been a fan of "why choose or when and is on the table" so
i'm going to be using saffron and fruit and Ms. Fettiplace will just have to be okay with that.
So the first step is making something akin to ale barm because what ale barm is is the the
yeast that grows during the process of making ale, and it's going to be hard for most people to find
that unless they're brewing ale at home so we're going to make something that will work instead. So
mix your yeast into the lukewarm ale and let it sit for about 10 minute. Then in a separate bowl
put your saffron threads into the sack, or the sherry, and let those sit for 10 minutes as well.
Of course if you're not going to use saffron then skip that part. While those sit take a large bowl
and whisk together the flour, and the sugar, as well as the salt, the nutmeg, the clove and the mace. Once
the yeasted ale has sat for about 10 minutes, pour it into the flour mixture and work it in. Then add
your softened butter and the sack with the saffron. Also if you're using the dried fruit add that in
and mix everything together. Now this dough is really, really sticky so once we start kneading
it a bit it will become easier to work with but if it's still just way too sticky go ahead and add a
little bit more flour until it's workable. Either way how much you need it is really up to you
because she doesn't give us a lot of instruction in that so if you want it to be more bread like
then you're going to knead it for probably about 15 minutes or so like you would a normal loaf of
bread, and that's going to make it so it's a little bit springier but it's also going to be more chewy
like bread. Then if you want it to be more like cake a little bit crumblier, then knead it for like
four or five minutes at most but just know that it's never going to have the same consistency as
a cake that's been leavened with baking powder, and baking soda. Yeasted cakes just are going to have
a little bit more more chew to them and that's just how it how it goes. I'm going in the middle,
i'm kneading it for about seven or eight minutes uh so I can kind of see is this bread, is this cake,
no need to decide. But once you have kneaded the bread then leave it to rise for about 45 minutes.
Know that it's not going to rise as much as most bread doughs especially if you've
incorporated any fruit. It will probably just get a little bit puffy and that's okay but once that
45 minutes is up or the dough gets a little bit puffy go ahead and form it into about 10 to 12
little balls or cakes. Now traditionally these cakes would have a little cross put onto them
either by cutting or just kind of indenting across, or by actually putting some fruit on
it which is what i'm going to do but if you don't want to put a cross on it you could also just put
maybe a wee little ghost on there and then it would still be a soul cake, but really you
can put whatever you want. But regardless of the design that you choose let them sit for
another 20 minutes or so while you preheat your oven to 400 degrees fahrenheit or 200 degrees
celsius. Once the cakes have had time to rest you can go ahead and put that optional egg wash on,
or else just set them in the oven and bake for 20 minutes. Now while the aroma of sweet saffron wafts
through your house make sure to hit that Like button as we go back to the origins of soul cakes.
"Soul, a soul, a soul cake, please good missus a soul cake. An apple, a pear, a plum, a cherry, any good
thing to make us all merry, one for Peter, two for Paul, three for him who made us all."
From the Middle ages until the early twentieth century variations on this song or other soul
cake songs were sung by people going house to house on All Souls eve or November 1st
making a plea for sweet treats, ale and as the song implies soul cakes. Today of course it's
more often done on Halloween itself and the song has been turned into a more pithy trick-or-treat,
and it usually doesn't involve either ale or cake anymore. Probably best since it's mostly little
kids but anyway how did this practice get started? Well like so many of our holiday traditions
we have the pagans to think specifically this time the druids. Before Christianity came to the
British Isles the Celtic people celebrated a festival called Samhain. It marked the end of the
harvest season and the beginning of winter. The festival was dedicated to the dying sun and the
shortening days of winter but it was also thought that during the festival the boundary between
the land of the living and that of the dead was more easily crossed allowing the dead to visit
their temporal loved ones. Even now in Ireland you can visit Neolithic passage tombs which are
aligned with the sunrise during the time of Samhain. So if dearly departed granny is coming all the way
over from the netherworld it would only be polite to have a snack waiting for her when she got there,
and one of the snacks that was most popular with the Celts was a little round cake. The whole thing
is similar to Dia de Muertos celebrated in Mexico today, and that makes me really want to watch the
movie Coco because I freaking love that movie. Anyway while it's great to see old granny again
her opening the door to the land of the dead often lets some of the more seedy characters
through, as well the Aos Si, or spirits and fairies, would pop through and run amok on the farm.
So if you want your cattle and livestock to make it through winter alive you need to placate those
mischievous little spirits. Luckily they also seemed to like cakes. So all was well in the
British Isles until the 6th through 8th century when a new religion came knock-knock-knockin on
old Albion's door. "Knock knock it's me Christianity. Love what you've done with the place, the holiday *muah
well perfection wouldn't change a thing, except maybe the name let's start there." And just like
that Samhain turned into All Hallows' Eve or Halloween on October 31st, All Saints' Day or All
Souls' Eve on November 1st and then All Souls' Day on November 2nd. They also got rid of the bonfires
because you know those are dangerous though those will be coming back in a few centuries
around Guy Fawkes Day, bonfire night. But they did want to keep those lovely little cakes that the Celts
were making as well as the whole you know 'dead loved ones' kind of thing they really liked that,
but instead of having them come back from the dead they decided you know they can stay where they are
in Purgatory and we'll just pray for them instead. And so a new tradition was born called Souling and
that was where people would go from house to house usually the poor offering their prayers for the
immortal soul of granny, and all that they asked in return was a little cake, and as it was considered
an alm for the poor the tradition of putting a cross on it developed sometime in the Middle ages.
Now while sanctioned by the Church at large the actual practices of the night varied wildly from
place to place around the British Isles. In Wales the giving of cakes was less to encourage prayers,
and more to actually placate Death itself. When knocking on doors the visitor would say "Deca,
Deca, come to the door, and give to the messenger of Death", and if no cake was given then "Deca, Deca ,
under the door the wife's head in smithereens." Kind of dark though I'm sure it also rhymed in
the original Welsh, but sure makes you glad of the more innocuous trick-or-treat that kids say today.
In parts of England people would go around with lit candles or lanterns as they walked around
to ward off witches. And in some places it was common for the knockers to actually be mummers who
were actors in a sort of costume. Some would dress as the evil spirits that they were trying to ward
off, and others would simply dress as their favorite saint. " 'And who are you supposed to be?'
'I'm Saint Ceolfrith of Monkwearmouth, contributor to the Codex Amiatinus Bible.' 'Oh well, isn't that
nice. Have a Baby Ruth.' " Speaking of Baby Ruths, as candy took pride of place during the 20th century,
soul cakes all but disappeared from the festivities leaving way for hard Tootsie Rolls
and candy corn. But they are still served mostly at churches in some parts of Britain and America
on that third day of the festival, All Souls' Day. So while i don't expect these
to outperform a Kit Kat or a Snickers I do think that by the smell that iIm smelling right now
they might do a little bit better than say some Smarties or those little wax cola bottles that
nobody ever eats. So after 20 minutes in the oven take the cakes out and set them on a wire
rack to cool, and here they are 17th century soul cakes. They're so cute, they just look so nice and
they smell so good you can really smell the saffron, so if you're not using saffron um
you should use saffron, but those other spices will probably really take pride of place but
for me what i'm smelling is saffron and I love that though I can, I can also smell the other
other spices in there. Anyway let's give this a shot. Hmm, they're good,
they're good! They're I mean they're not a cake um
at all. I mean I think the modern day soul cakes are a little bit more cake. Like this is not a cake,
it's definitely closer to a bread but not as soft or springy. It's a little bit more dense
but they're nice. I think that one will will do just fine, but I really like the flavor.
The flavor is what gets me, it's mild but it's sweet and saffrony and and you can taste the other
spices but nothing really overpowers anything. So i do think that it would go well with you know
something to drink because they are a little drier than than I might like, but they're fun and don't
hand these out to people at trick-or-treating because the kids will be very mad but maybe if
you made them for your own household that would be fine. But regardless have a happy Halloween
and a merry All Souls' Day and I will see you next time on Tasting History.
♪ I'm a soul cake, I'm a soul caaaaaake ♪