Introduction
The Source Recipe
Take one pound of very fine flower, and one pound of fine sugar, and eight egs, and two spoonefuls of Rose water, and one ounce of carroway seeds, and beat it all to batter one whole hour, for the more you beat it, the better your bread is, then bake it in coffins of white plate, beeing basted with a little butter before you put in your batter, and so keepe it. (Plat, 1602)
(Plat)
Related Recipes
To make Prince Bisket.
53 DRie a pound of very fine wheat flower in an Ouen two houres, after the bread hath beene drawne, or the Ouen being warmed, but not heated for the nonce, the flower were best in an ear∣then Pipkin couered, least it loose the colour, put to it a pound of double refined Su∣gar beaten and cearsed fine, then take ten new laid Egges, take away fiue of their whites, straine these Egs into a Bason, with a spoonfull of Rose-wa∣ter, and sixe spoonfuls of scal∣ded Creame, when you haue all in the Bason, first put in your cearsed Sugar, and let it dissolue by beating it into your Egs, then put in your flower by little and little, vntill both the flower and the other things be incorporated, beat it well together an houre at least, and you shall at last see it turne white, then you must haue coffins of white plate indude with butter as thinne as you can, so as it be touch∣ed in euery place, then take an ounce and a halfe of sweet Anise-seed, and one of Corian∣der, dried rubd and dusted, put the Anise-seed in the batter, & the batter into the coffins, and bake it an houre at least if you will, you may make Crack∣nels of the same batter, driue it thinne vpon the Plates, and when you take it off, rowle it thinne like a Wafer, and dry them againe in the Ouen. (Murrell, 1617)
(Murrell)
To make Bisquite du Roy.
Take a pound of fine searsed sugar, a pound of fine flour, and six eggs, beat them very well, then put them all into a stone mortar, and pound them for the space of an hour and a half, let it not stand still, for then it will be heavy, and when you have beaten it so long a time, put in halfe an ounce of anniseed; then butter over some pie plates, and drop the stuff on the plate as fast as two or three can with spoons, shape them round as near as you can, and set them into an oven as hot as for manchet, but the less they are coloured the better. (May, 1685)
(May, 1678)
Bisquite du Roy otherways.
Take to a pound of flour a pound of sugar, and twelve new laid eggs, beat them in a deep dish, then put 274 to them two grains of musk dissolved, rose-water, anniseed, and coriander-seed, beat them the space of an hour with a wooden spatter; then the oven being ready, have white tin molds butter’d, and fill them with this Bisquite, strow double refined sugar in them, and bake them when they rise out of the moulds, draw them and put them on a great pasty-plate or pye-plate, and dry them in a stove, and put them in a square lattin box, and lay white papers betwixt every range or rank, have a padlock to it, and set it over a warm oven, so keep them, and thus for any kind of bisket, mackeroons, marchpane, sugar plates, or pasties, set them in a temperate place where they may not give with every change of weather, and thus you may keep them very long. (May, 1685)
To make fine Bysket Bread.
TAke a pound of fine flower, and a pound of suger, and mingle it together, a quar∣ter of a pound of Annis séedes, foure egges, two or thrée sponfuls of rosewater put all these into an earthen Panne. And with a slyce of Woode beate it the space of two houres, then fill your moulds halfe ful your mouldes must be of Tinne, and then set it into the ouen, your ouen beeing so whot as it were for cheat bread, and let it stand one houre and a halfe, you must annoint your moulds with butter before you put in your stuffe, and when you will occupie of it slice it thinne and drie it in the ouen your ouen beeing no whotter then you may abide your hand in the bottome. (Dawson, 1587)
Materials
The original recipe calls for:
1 pound flour 1 pound sugar
8 eggs 2 spoonfuls Rosewater
1 ounce caraway seeds
Procedure
First, I reduced the amount of the ingredients needed by ¼. 1 pound of flour equals 3.2 cups. ¼ of 3 cups is ¾ cup flour. 1 pound of sugar is 2.3 cups, or ¼ of that is roughly ½ cup sugar. 2 tablespoons are equal to 6 teaspoons, or ¼ of that is 1.5 tsp of rosewater. 1 ounce equals 2 tablespoons, or ¼ of that is ½ Tbsp of caraway seeds.
2 eggs 1½ tsp rosewater
½ Tbsp caraway seeds
Mix all ingredients together and beat together for 1 hour by hand.** If using a stand mixer, start slowly and beat together for approximately 20-30 minutes. Cover the baking mold with melted butter (or canola oil cooking spray). Then fill baking molds ¾ full with mixture (as best as you can). If the mixture is more on the runny side, then use a pipping bag to pour mixture into the molds. Bake at 325ºF for approximately 14 minutes, or until the mixture has risen and turns golden brown.
** When eggs are beaten, the proteins between the yolk and the white are broken down and recombined. Then, when combining water with the egg white, a foam is created that will help the biskets to rise. The eggs need to be beaten a lot for the protein structures to be reformed. However, both sugar and flour interfere with this process, which causes a less stable egg foam and therefore a softer bisket texture. (McGee) If the eggs were beaten separately first, then adding in the remaining ingredients, the egg foam would be much stronger. This would cause the end result to be crisper. (Ledelade)
Results
In 2015, I first attempted this recipe. I made it with aniseeds and had a few mishaps when baking (slightly burnt, crispy edges).
In 2019, I had tested out this recipe again, with using different oven temperatures and timing in the oven. I also used anise seeds, like the original recipe called for. I found that baking at 325ºF for 14 minutes to be the perfect number. The biskets baked under 14 minutes had a sponge-like muffin quality, but also had slightly sticky feel on the bottom of the molds. The biskets baked over 14 minutes were browned, more biscotti-like, and not sticky on the bottoms.
This time around, I went back to the original recipe from 1602. I noticed that from 2019 that some of my measurements were slightly off when I reduced the amounts on the ingredients. Also, I had not beat the mixture by hand for an hour. This time around with my modifications to the ingredients and timeframe for beating, I found the mixture to be less runny (as it was in 2019) and more stretchy (and sticky). This made it more difficult to pour the mixture into the molds. So, I had to use two spoons to put the mixture into the molds.
Overall, I am quite happy with how these Prince Biskets turned out!
Works Cited
Dawson, Thomas. The good husvvifes ievvell. 1587. https://quod.lib.umich.edu/cgi/t/text/text-idx?c=eebo;idno=A19957.0001.001. 26 July 2023.
Lecelade, Leoba of. “Prince Bisket (Revisted).” 2017. https://leobalecelad.wordpress.com/2017/05/17/prince-bisket-revisited/.
26 July 2023.
May, Robert. The Accomplisht Cook. 1678. https://archive.org/details/b30333581/page/272/mode/2up. 26 July 2023.
May, Robert. The Accomplisht Cook. 1685. https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/22790/pg22790-images.html.
26 July 2023.
McGee, Harold. On Food and Cooking. 1997. https://www.amazon.com/Food-Cooking-Harold-McGee/dp/0684843285.
Murrell, John. A Daily Exercise for Ladies and Gentlemen. 1617. https://quod.lib.umich.edu/e/eebo2/A07931.0001.001/1:11.5?rgn=div2;view=fulltext. 26 July 2023.
Murrell, John. A Daily Exercise for Ladies and Gentlemen. 1617. https://www.loc.gov/resource/rbc0001.2013pennell59509/?sp=98&r=-1.143,0,3.286,1.608,0. 26 July 2023.
Plat, Sir Hugh. Delightes for Ladies. 1602. https://quod.lib.umich.edu/e/eebo2/A09713.0001.001/1:4.20?rgn=div2;view=fulltext. 26 July 2023.
Plat, Sir Hugh. Delightes for Ladies. 1611. https://archive.org/details/b3033875x/page/n51/mode/2up. 26 July 2023.
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