How to Make Saturnalia Cookies
by
Stephanie Dray
In my debut novel, Lily of the Nile: A Novel of Cleopatra’s Daughter, my heroine’s first Saturnalia is a thing of wonder. Though her father was Mark Antony, the famed Roman general, Selene had been raised a Princess of Egypt, which meant that many ancient Roman traditions would have been as unusual to her as they are to us. In the book, Saturnalia is the first time since being taken as an orphaned prisoner of war that Selene starts to find her place with her new Roman family.
It’s the scents and the sounds of the Saturnalia festival that allow Selene to bond with the emperor’s daughter, Julia, and of course the food. We can’t forget the food. The holiday feasts we all enjoy today are but a pale mimicry of ancient Roman banquets.
Part of the enjoyment I get out of researching ancient times is discovering the way they ate and celebrated. One Saturnalia tradition that figures into the novel is when all the guests take a Saturnalia pastry and the guest whose pastry has a bean hidden inside of it is named the King of the Saturnalia or the Lord of Misrule. I thought it might be fun to reproduce this tradition for the holiday season.
The Romans did have pastries and they enjoyed sweet deserts, but they were different from those we enjoy now because the Romans didn’t use butter or sugar, and they didn’t have baking soda or baking powder. They did, however, have other substitutes. For butter, they often substituted a sweet creamy cheese. For sugar, they used honey. For leavening they sometimes used eggs. This led them to create hearty and rustic pastries with flours, seeds, fruit, oil.
To make a Saturnalia cookie, one might take any sort of modern oatmeal cookie and hide a raisin inside one of them. That’s the easy way, and given the Roman penchant for practicality, they would approve wholeheartedly.
However, if you want to go the old fashioned route, try this recipe:
Roman Globuli Pastries
½ Cup Flour
½ Cup Ricotta Cheese (Whole Milk)
¼ Cup Honey
⅓ Cup Olive Oil
1 Raisin
Mix the Flour and Ricotta Cheese in a bowl with a fork until it forms a stiff dough. With wet fingers, roll dough into 1 inch balls. Inside one of those balls, hide a raisin. Heat oil in a pan on high, then lightly fry the dough balls until golden brown. When the dough balls are cooked through, roll them in honey. Chill and Serve.
BIO
Stephanie Dray is the author of a forthcoming trilogy of historical fiction novels set in the Augustan Age, starting with Lily of the Nile: A Novel of Cleopatra's Daughter. Before she wrote novels, Stephanie was a lawyer, a game designer, and a teacher. Now she uses the transformative power of magic realism to illuminate the stories of women in history and inspire the young women of today. She remains fascinated by all things Roman or Egyptian and has–to the consternation of her devoted husband–collected a house full of cats and ancient artifacts.
She is currently sponsoring the Cleopatra Literary Contest for Young Women, the deadline for which is March 1, 2011, but join her newsletter now for updates and a chance to win a free copy of Lily of the Nile and additional prizes.
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WOW! What a FUN post!! loving the recipe!!! And that book sounds GREAT! :):):):):):):):):):):):):):):):):):):):):):):):):):):)
ReplyDeleteThese look really good, except I think I would hide an almond instead of a raisin!
ReplyDeleteThe recipe sounds delicious -- and the book looks divine! Can't wait to hear more about it!
ReplyDeleteThe pastries sound divine! I must try making those. I'm about to start this book and am anxious to do so as I've heard nothing but good things about it.
ReplyDeleteRicotta cheese and honey sound like a tasty combination. And I don't think you can go wrong with anything that is fried. :)
ReplyDeleteGreta posts, and those do not seem too hard to make, hm, but I would skip the raisins, do hate those
ReplyDeleteThanks for having me here today and for all the kind words. I was searching for a good Saturnalia cookie recipe because these pastries came up in the book and I love to be in the heart and mind of my characters--to see what they saw and taste what they tasted. Super nerdly, I know!
ReplyDeleteAnyway, I really liked this recipe because it was simple and quick ancient donut hole in about fifteen minutes. I'm not a big raisin fan myself, so I think the almond suggestion is fantastic.
Also, next time I make these, I'll include a picture!
ReplyDeleteWhat a great post. I like reading about how people ate and celebrated long ago. Interesting, too, about the lack of baking soda and powder. Now I'm curious about the book.
ReplyDeletewhat an interesting author. Whenever I need a new book to read I just browse your archives.
ReplyDeleteThis recipe looks lovely! I've been looking for a Saturnalia "cookie" recipe and, until now, have come up empty handed. Thank you so much!
ReplyDelete