Hildegard of Bingen's Biscuits of Joy

Time out of Time: the Second Sunday of Lent

Here is this week's Sunday treat; I think that we need it, and it's a special one ~ Hildegard of Bingen's Biscuits of Joy.

Hildegard of Bingen was a 12th-century nun, mystic, prophet, and healer. Her Spirit-inspired medicinal writings, ‘Physica and Causes and Cures’, centre on the kitchen & the garden & provide remedies, broths, tonics, teas, & baked goods, for all manner of ailments. Her 'biscuits of joy', or 'nerve biscuits', are suggested for those suffering from melancholy, or a surfeit of 'black bile'. She writes that these spiced biscuits, "calm all bitterness of the heart and mind, open your heart and impaired senses, and make your mind cheerful.” She also recommended licorice-flavored cookies for nausea and ginger for constipation. I like Hildegard's ideas about healing!

Hildegard regarded illness as an imbalance of earth, fire, water, or air, which impacted the body’s 'viriditas', or “greening power,” to heal itself. Perfect then to try one of her recipes here at the beginning of spring.

This recipe uses spelt and mood-lifting spices such as nutmeg, cinnamon, and clove. She wrote that spelt, an ancient grain, is “hot, rich, and powerful” & “creates a happy mind and puts joy in the human disposition.” She commented that spices such as nutmeg would have complemented the spelt by opening up the heart, freeing the mind and senses, and establishing an overall joyful disposition.

The nuns at St. Hildegard's abbey, founded by her in Eibingen, Germany in 1165, continue her culinary traditions and bake biscuits of joy to this day.

To try these baked treats & to lift any feelings of melancholy, we can follow Hildegard's own medieval recipe. In Physica she wrote: “Take some nutmeg and an equal weight of cinnamon and a bit of cloves, and pulverize them. Then make small cakes with this and flour and water. Eat them often. It will calm all bitterness of the heart and mind, open your heart and impaired senses, and make your mind cheerful. It purifies your senses and diminishes all harmful humors in you. It gives good liquid to your blood and makes you strong.”

A slightly adapted recipe, & the one that I used is below.

Ingredients:

2 1/2 cups spelt flour ~ I found that the recipe needed much more flour than this & I just kept adding some until the biscuit dough came together

12 tablespoons butter

3/4 cup brown sugar

1/3 cup raw honey

4 egg yolks

1 teaspoon salt

1 tablespoon nutmeg

1 tablespoon cinnamon

1 teaspoon cloves

Method:

1) Melt the butter and pour into a bowl with the sugar, honey, & egg yolks. Beat gently to combine.

2) Add the other ingredients & fold in. I added the flour slowly, especially towards the end as it needed more than the recipe suggested. It needs to create a dough that holds together but the next stage will make it much stiffer so it can still be fairly loose at this point.

3) Refrigerate the dough for an hour.

4) On a floured surface, roll out the dough to about 1/4 inch thick & cut into small rounds using a cookie cutter or a glass/jar.

5) Place on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper & bake at 375 °F/190 °C/gas mark 5 for about 10 minutes or until golden brown. Mine took longer so just keep an eye on them.

6) Cool, & enjoy.

These biscuits are delicious, & I would very much value a lifting of my spirits. I am grateful for Hildegard's nourishing wisdom.

Recipe from: https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/medieval-cookie-recipe?utm_source=pocket-newtab-global-en-GB