Simnell Breads

Translation of a 16th century Italian Recipe.

From Christoforo di Messisbugo, Banchetti composizioni di vivande e apparecchio generale (Lucio Spineda, Venice, 1610)

p40r A fare sosameli perfettissimi numero 36. (to make simnell-breads perfectly, numbering 36.)

Take one pound of white flour, and two pounds of ground sugar, and well passed through the sieve, and one ounce of finely ground cinnamon, and two pinches of ground pepper, and three egg yolks, and one white, and one eighth [ounce] of long peppers, and rose water mixed with a little salt, and when diligently made your paste [will be] a little hard, and mixed very well. Then have the stamp, and make the stamps that you would. And brush over a little of musk that will be sweet. Then put [them] to cook by the fire over a small board.