Baking with Bakchoi

Michael Sebastian Lùx recently wrote in with the following suggestion, which I’d like to share with all of you.

I was looking at your Orphic page and found something that is near and dear to my heart. In the Derveni Papyrus col. 6.1-11 it is written, “They sacrifice innumerable and many-knobbed cakes, because the souls, too, are innumerable.” This reminded me of an offering I make of Greek origin that I adapted from my very Byzantine grandmother, koulourakia. The adaptation uses quite a bit of spices, but when pinched off in small parts and burned it does have a beautiful aroma (it’s also quite edible). As an added benefit, it’s often woven into a knobbed shape or, from what I hear, among some people it’s woven into a snake shape.

Ingredients:

1 lb. unsalted butter
1-1/2 cups sugar
6 eggs (reserve 2 for brushing cookies)
6 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. baking soda
4 cups all-purpose flour
2 tsp. vanilla extract
2 tsp. cardamom
2 tsp. cinnamon
2 tsp. cloves
2 tsp. nutmeg
2 tsp. allspice
2 oz. Ouzo

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Using the mixer beat the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add the vanilla extract and ouzo and mix well. While the mixer is running, add eggs one by one and mix until well incorporated.

In a separate bowl, sift the flour with the baking powder and soda. Add the flour mixture to the butter mixture little by little. The dough will be soft and malleable but it should not be sticky. You should be able to pinch off a ball of dough and roll it in to a cord or thin tube.

If the dough is too sticky, add a little bit more flour. Allow the dough to rest a bit before rolling into shapes.

To shape the cookies, pinch off a piece of dough about the size of a walnut. Roll out a cord or thin tube of dough about the length of a dinner knife. Fold in half then twist two times. You can also make a coiled circle or an “S” shape.

Beat the remaining two eggs in a bowl and add a splash of water to the egg. Brush the cookies lightly with the egg wash.

Bake cookies on parchment paper or on a lightly greased cookie sheet at 350 degrees for approximately 20 minutes or until they are nicely golden brown.

Glaze

1/2 cup honey
1/4 cup fresh lemon juice
3 tbsp. fresh lemon rind
1 tsp. mastic
1 tsp. mace
Salt to taste

Simmer on low heat until it reaches a thick, yet pourable consistency. Add more honey or lemon juice as necessary to achieve desired consistency.

This sounds like a wonderful recipe for those who would like to make many-knobbed cakes for the ancestral spirits. I’d love to see folks try it out and compare results!