Recipe: Pety Pernauntes

Period: England, 1300s-1400s
Sources: Medieval Cookery

Crust:
1 cup semola flour
1 Tbls. sugar
1 tiny pinch of saffron
1/8 tsp. salt
6 Tbls. butter
1/4 cup water

Filling:
6 egg yolks
1 Tbls. water
1/2 tsp. gelatin
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 tsp. powdered ginger
1/4 cup minced dates
1/4 cup minced raisins, dried currant berries, or similar

For the crust: Stir together the flour, sugar, saffron, and salt. Cut in the butter until it creates moist crumbs, leaving some small chunks of butter. Stir in the water, forming a dough. Wrap the dough in plastic wrap and chill it in the fridge while making the filling.

Preheat oven to 350 F.

Dissolve the gelatin in the water. Beat together the egg yolks, gelatin, sugar, and powdered ginger until the mixture is very light, as light as you can reasonably get it. Then stir in the dates and raisins.

Divide the crust dough into 12 pieces, 6 of them slightly smaller than the others. Roll the larger balls out into circles and line 6 cups in a mini tart pan. Put about 2 Tbls. of filling into each cup--there will be a little extra, so divide it evenly. Then roll the smaller balls of dough to make top crusts. Leave a little bit of space, if you can, between the filling and the top crust.

Bake for 35-40 minutes, until the crust is golden brown.

Recipe: Chicken & Fruit Pie

Period: 1200s-1600s, Europe
Sources: Gode Cookery, Serve Them Forth

Use a 9" deep dish pie tin. You also want a meat thermometer.

Pie crust:

3/4 cup butter
2 cups whole wheat pastry flour 
1/2 cup water
1/4 tsp. salt (if using unsalted butter)
beaten egg whites

Filling:

2 Tbls. honey 
1/2 cup dried fruits, minced (I used fancy raisins, blueberries, prunes, cherries)
1 Tbls. ground cinnamon 
2-3 egg yolks, depending on the size of eggs (I used 3 "medium")
2 Tbls. minced nuts (I used pecans)
1 cup carrots, finely chopped
3/4 cup fennel bulb, finely chopped
2 cups chicken, cut into about 1" cubes
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. pepper
1 tsp. thyme
1/2 tsp. mace

Crust: Cut the butter into the flour until it is crumbly and there is no more dry powder. Dissolve the salt (if using) in the water, and stir into the flour to make a soft dough. Knead it a bit to get it all together. Form a ball, wrap in plastic wrap, and place in fridge to chill until hard.

Mix the chicken pieces, salt, pepper, thyme, and mace. Set aside, let chill.

Stir together the rest of the filling ingredients.

When the crust dough is hard, divide it in half. Place a piece of waxed paper on the counter, and sprinkle with flour. Roll out half the dough to a circle big enough to fit in the pie tin. It should be somewhat thick crust. Place the tin upside-down on the dough, and flip it over with the dough and waxed paper to get the dough inside. Remove the waxed paper and press the dough down into the tin.

Around this time, set the oven to preheat to 350 F.

Stir the chicken mix into the rest of the filling. Spread the filling into the pie tin.

Roll out the rest of the crust in the same way, using the waxed paper to lift it and place it on the top of the pie. Trim the edge of the crust and pinch the top and bottom together.

Brush the beaten egg whites onto the crust. Make a cool design on the top crust with the remaining dough! Make sure there are some cuts in the top crust. Brush the design with egg whites as well.

Bake for about 1 hour, until the internal temperature reaches or exceeds 165 F.