It has been a busy few months, flying from photography assignments and meetings in London to Latvia for research, London again, then to New York, two days after to Milan, then London again, then Milan again a few days ago. I have been spreading myself too thin, so over the Easter weekend, my first weekend home since somewhere in februari, I barricaded myself onto the sofa between stacks of pillows and two sleepy cats.
I was following ‘A History of Royal Food and Feasting’, a fun free online course from the University of reading and Historic Royal Palaces with a lot of interesting historical information about food. A lot of the information I already knew but I did manage to learn a few things, plus it was just great fun to do and force myself to take some rest while still being productive. One of the dishes that were recommended to try on the course were Jumbles, a biscuit I had been meaning to bake but haven’t had the time in my mad schedule. When the Learning and Engagement department got in touch to check if I wanted to get involved to spread the word about the course I of course said yes because I enjoyed it. So Jumbles it was!
Jumbles were knot shaped biscuits that first appeared in the wonderful book The good Huswifes Jewell by Thomas Dawson, dating to 1585. But legend places this biscuit right at the heart of The War of the Roses a century before Dawson’s recipe.
For those who are unfamiliar with English history The Wars of the Roses were a series of battles fought in the period of 1455 to 1485 between two rival branches of the royal House of Plantagenet, the House of York and the house of Lancaster – both sporting a rose in their heraldic emblem. Both made a claim for the throne of England. They were a result from the social and financial problems following the Hundred Years’ War. The Lancastrian claimant, Henry Tudor defeated the last king of the House of York, Richard III at Bosworth Field, near Market Bosworth, a market town in Leicestershire. He then married Edward IV’s daughter, Elizabeth of York, to unite the two houses.
And it is precisely on this last battlefield that a new legend was born, at least a few centuries later…
The story goes that Richard III’s chef brought biscuits to the battlefield. These were even thought to be his speciality and the favourite of the king. After the battle when survivers were stealing valuables from the dead as was the custom, a recipe for these biscuits was found – because you should never go to war without at least one good biscuit recipe! The biscuits were promptly named Bosworth Jumbles. Or so the legend says since around the 1980’s.
Although the word ‘jumble’ means ‘to make a hodgepodge out of things’ leading you to think it is called that way because of mixing a bunch ingredients, it is thought to come form the Latin ‘gemellus’ meaning ‘twins’ which might refer to the shape of the knot. It is a possibility since there is also a biscuit in Italy called ‘gemelli’ as in the Italian word for twins. In France there is the ‘gimblette’ a donut shaped biscuit which was hung from a rosemary branch on Palm Sunday in order to be blessed. Popular flavourings are candied peel and orange blossom water, sometimes also aniseed. The biscuits are first boiled, then baked, like the early English recipe also instructs. The Larousse gives as explanation for this bake: Petit gâteau en couronne, parfumé aux amandes. Spécialité d’Albi. No mention of the other flavourings. But I am not alarmed as The Larousse is often incomplete or wrong!
Another biscuit I find closely linked to the English Jumble, Italian gemelli and the French ‘gimblette’ is another Italian biscuit, this one from the island of Burano: the Buranelli or Bussolai Buranei. Often also called Essi when it is shaped in an S-shape instead of donut. Though theories on this site claim it was made for fishermen, I find it a little unbelievable since working class people would not have been able to afford the sugar. Traditional stories place the Buranelli or Bussolai Buranei around Eastertime, just like the French Gimblette. The island website of Burano tells the romantic tale that it was a tradition of Burano, a few days before Easter for the women to rent the ovens of the island’s bakeries to bake their bussolai for Easter. It is quite possible that this did indeed happen as it was a general custom all over Europe for people to go to their town or village bakery to have their bread, meat or beans cooked or baked. In Puglia and in Napoli they have a biscuit which is probably the most similar to the English Jumble: the Taralli. This biscuit, although always savoury is also first boiled then baked.
In the 16th century there was also the gimmell ring, again referring to the Latin word for twin ‘gemellus’ as mentioned earlier. The ring was made from two intersecting bands and if you hold them away from one and other they do kind of look like a pretzel or our old jumbles. My favourite 17th century poet Robert Herrick mentions the ring in one of his poems and he even calls it ‘a ring of jimmals’. I’ve always been intrigued by his words.
I find another possible early link in Bartolomeo Sacchi – Platina – De honesta voluptate et valetudine, dated around 1465. There the author shares a recipe for a ‘pastry which they call canisiones’ which he says to form into rolls, and bake in a gentle oven just like the recipe for marzipan confections on the page before. Jumbles in England were also sometimes made not from flour, eggs and butter, but from a sugar and fruit paste, or almond meal, very much resembling the marzipan biscuits of Platina.
‘Apricock Jumballs’ from an 18th century recipe from ‘English Housewifery Exemplified’ written by Elizabeth Moxon is such a flourless jumble, consisting only from sugar and apricots cooked until they become a stiff paste like fruit cheese. These were then cut in strips and made into complex knot creations which you can see in some Dutch still life paintings.
In the 17th century they also appeared in books and recipes can be found in Hugh Plat’s The Arte of Preserving Conserving… of 1609 and in The English Huswife by Gervase Markham in 1615. By then the dough was no longer boiled before being baked. Flavourings still include the traditional and still popular aniseed and caraway seeds. Sometimes sugar was added, sometimes it was left out. Rosewater is still being used, even as an icing mixed with sugar and egg white. While Plat instructs to create knots and uses almond meal and grated biscuits, Markham says you can make them in whatever shape you want and uses wheat flour.
Jumbles were mostly popular in the 18th century where they were served with wine, just like Italian biscotti to dip in Vinsanto.
Later recipes use yeast, presumably to create a lighter bake, then yeast is replaced by baking powder. In the 20th century all shapes are a go and jumbles are even made into letters as instructed in the Reform Cookery Book‘ by Mrs. Mill in 1909. Recipes for jumbles today, like used on the Bake Off last year, are more crumbly and short textured.
I chose to give you the recipe which calls for poaching the biscuits like the earliest recipes stated because I tested the biscuits only baking them and the poached ones came out much nicer and covered in a pearly exterior as if they had been egg washed. The baked ones were just looking like a dry biscuit. They are dry though, don’t think like you’re going to experience a nice short texture, it is definitely more chewy and I assume these biscuits were made to keep relatively long. It is even possible they would have used them for decoration too. In any case I am keeping some to see how long they keep and as soon as I break my tooth on one.
Use a mortar and pestle to crush the caraway or aniseeds, if your mortar is large enough, add the sugar and bash them together to get the flavour into the sugar.
Add the pinch of salt and the flour and work the mass into a stiff dough.
The dough is quite dry, yet still a little sticky, but that is what you need to roll it out succesfully.
Leave the dough to rest for an hour or so if you have the time, if not, proceed by rolling out the dough in 26 cm snakes for the knots.
Preheat your oven to 180°c and place a baking tray in it to get hot. Keep another baking tray aside and line it with kitchen paper or a tea towel.
Keep a fine pastry brush and 1 tsp of rosewater ready in a small bowl, I tend to use an eggcup for this. Make the knots like for pretzels or any other knot shape you desire. Use the rosewater to moisten the ends of the snakes to attach them to the knot, it might seem like they do not stick together but leave them for a few minutes while you do your other knots and you will see they are stuck together.
Have a spatula ready to immerse the knots into the water and poach them for 10 minutes.
Transfer the knots onto the baking tray you lined with the kitchen paper or tea towel and dry them gently.
Now line the hot baking tray with baking parchment and arrange the knots onto it. Bake them in the middle of the oven for 25-30 minutes or until the biscuits start to blush a little orange, they should not be baked golden brown.
In The New World of English Words (London: 1678) Edward Phillips defines the name for this confection thus, ‘Jumbals, a sort of Sugared past, wreathed into knots’. These knotted delicacies were usually made with a kind of biscuit or marchpane dough and were baked. They probably emerged from the craze in the 1570s for knotted strap work.
My Books: Pride and Pudding
Plain looking and tiny, but still tasty, with a very pronounced nutmeg scent. Based on family recipes that others were posting online, it seems that decades ago, many people’s grandmothers were adding dried fruits and nuts to their jumbles. So I did the same. And made them bigger by dropping tablespoonfuls.
While itching to bake cookies last week and flipping through The Essential New York Times Cookbook, I came across a recipe for “jumbles”, revised from a recipe that a Times reader had sent in to the paper in 1878.
The second batch with cranberries, currants, and almonds were not only nicer looking but sturdier from the longer baking time. They’re softer and more biscuit-like than your average cookie, but would probably still be a crowd-pleaser. I ate half a dozen myself straight out of the oven.
Jumbles? I had never heard of them, but the ingredients looked like the ingredients in your average cookie recipe, except with the addition of sour cream. Amanda Hesser described them as “crisp and buttery and trilling with freshly grated nutmeg.” I was intrigued.
Apparently, jumbles date back even further than the 1800s, to the Middle Ages. They supposedly originated in the Middle East, where the diet was pretty sugar-heavy, and traveled to Europe via the Moors. Unlike European cookies of the time, jumbles were also heavily spiced and scented with flavorings such as rosewater, cinnamon, aniseed, and caraway seeds. Because these dense cookies were meant to store for long periods, bakers would twist them into knots and rings so they could be broken up more easily to eat. Over time, jumbles retained the spices but lost their shape; recipes from colonial America directed bakers to form the dump into rough lumps instead of any elaborate twists. Indeed, Martha Washington’s own recipe for jumbles is pretty clear on ingredient quantities, but leaves the directions for shaping more ambiguous.
Jumbles (Cookies) | SCOUTADELIC
FAQ
What is a British jumble?
Why are jumbles called jumbles?
What is the history of chocolate jumbles?
What are jumble cookies?
Jumbles are simple butter cookies made with a basic recipe of flour, sugar, eggs, and butter. They can be flavored with vanilla, anise, or caraway seed used for flavoring, or other flavoring can be used like almond. They were formerly often made in the form of rings or rolls.
What do Jumbles taste like?
They can be flavored with vanilla, anise, or caraway seed used for flavoring, or other flavoring can be used like almond. They were formerly often made in the form of rings or rolls. Jumbles were widespread, specifically because they travelled well, thanks to their very dense, hard nature.
How do you make Jumbles?
An 18th-century recipe from The Compleat Housewife is made by beating three egg whites with milk, flour, sugar and caraway seeds into a stiff paste. They could be made in any shape and baked on baking parchment. Originally, jumbles were twisted into various pretzel -like shapes and boiled.
How were jumble cookies made?
Originally, jumbles were twisted into various pretzel -like shapes and boiled. By the late 18th century, jumbles became rolled cookies that were baked, producing a cookie very similar to a modern sugar cookie, although without the baking powder or other leavening agents used in modern recipes.