Brielle's Avalon

Once upon a time Yes, these are mentioned in the traditional tune made popular by Peter Paul and Mary. People, kids, adults, whoever, would go from house to house asking for soul cakes or any “good thing to make us all merry”. Apparently for every soul cake eaten a soul was freed from purgatory so making and eating these could be something of a community service for departed souls. Or they can be just a nice, seasonal treat. I remembered these on Halloween but was too busy to bake so I made them on All Saints Day (Nov 1st) so I could share them at work on All Souls Day (Nov 2nd) There are several recipes, some more like cookies, others more like biscuits and most using grams instead of cups in measurements so I fell back on my old, standard, chocolate chip cookie recipe (because the ingredients and proportions rather resembled it) and went from there. Here goes:

1 softened stick of butter

1 c brown sugar topped off with granulated sugar. If you want a whiter cookie you can use regular sugar.

1 tsp Vanilla

2 eggs (next time I’ll try 1. The other recipes called for 2 or 3 yolks and I didn’t want to store my whites for later)

3 or 4 Tbsp Sack (a fortified wine, not available to everyone so I used a dark lager)

1/2 tsp ea Nutmeg, Ginger, Cloves Cinnamon (mace is good too)

1/2 tsp ea Baking Powder and Baking Soda

3c flour

1 c raisins or other dried fruit. Dried cranberries are good, as are sultanas

Cream the butter and sugar with vanilla. If you use brown sugar you can top it off with regular sugar to easily make an even cup.

Mix in the eggs and sack or lager or port or Madeira or milk

Add the spices and leavening

Mix in the flour

Add the raisins. This is where the stirring gets tough.

Use a cookie scoop to scoop the cookies onto a greased cookie sheet.

Some tried harder than others to keep their cross. The 1st batch didn’t much keep their cross so I added another 1/2 c flour to bring it up to 3 c and it worked.

With a wet butter knife mark each with a cross

Bake at 350 degrees for about 10 to 15 minutes, until they’re golden brown.

Serve with milk, tea, sherry, lager or whatever suits you.