Soul Cakes Recipe
Well, My kids enjoy making them with me every October per tradition and at least a few times more a year on request... yes I know its June...as a mother you can never get your ish together soon enough...besides..they go great with the Pumpkin Chili I already posted, and a crockpot is a Summer mom-Taxi cab-running all over the place-kids destroying the house-dinner SAVIOR... and...I'm wreckless and dont seasonally catagorize my blogs....living dangerously......send help...
In short, Soul Cakes were a big part of Halloween before it was Halloween, (or Samhain/all souls day/day of the dead etc etc...if you live on this planet, you're doing SOMETHING out of the oridinary between Oct.30th-Nov.2nd no matter WHAT you call it...moving on...) and put in brief generic terms: back in the ancient day, which was a wednesday by the way, the poor would go door to door exchanging prayer for dead loved ones for soul cakes...fast forward the evolution and pollution of old traditions and we throw candy in kids bags like parents don't have dental bills haha! There is soooo much more detail, tradition and beautiful culture drenched history to that group of dates then that...but you're here to make soul cakes so lets make a move!
Note: Obviously I make mine vegan, using basic replacement options that vary for milk, butter and eggs etc, I also make them Gluten/Soy Free, many options can be changed and still make these delicious. I have put the basic original recipe up, you can alter this to your lifestyle needs/taste. I also like to know the original recipe, so I can make my preferred choice on the replacements.
Preheat oven to 400 Degrees F. (I know I'm not alone in that, I've gone to put all that effort into the oven and forgot to preheat the *&@%!$! thing....)
INGREDIENTS:
*2 cups FLOUR
*1/2 tsp NUTMEG
*1/2 tsp CINNAMON
*1/2 tsp SALT
Pinch of SAFFRON
1/2 cup MILK
1 Stick (8tblsp) BUTTER
1/2 cup SUGAR
2 EGGS YOLKS
1/2 cup CURRANTS (or raisins) (optional)
1. Mix Milk and Saffron on LOW heat until just warm (keep warm till use)
2. COMBINE all *DRY ingredients set aside (add more/less to taste with spices)
3. Cream together Butter/Sugar then add Yolks
4. Add Flour mixture to Butter (#3) mixture and combine
5. Add Safffron milk 1TBLSP at a time until soft dough forms
6. Knead dough well (3-5 min)
7. Flour surface, roll out and cut with thick cookie cutters of choice (have fun with it!)
8. Add Currants
9. Beat one EGG and brush over top for Glaze
Bake at 400 for 15 min (or so, could need more or less depending on your oven/altitude.) Watch em, even tho these are by nature/recipe, a firmer almost biscuit like cake, you dont want hockey pucks. AAAAAND now go dip them in that chili..sooooo gooooooood. Please let me know how you like it, or any improvements you made to suit your taste buds! Enjoy and Blessings....
