Pupil report: Roman Bake-Off

This week during our conversation about society, we took a break from the screens to think about Roman food and launched our own ‘Roman Bake-Off’. We followed a traditional Roman recipe for oat cookies from the 1st Century AD cookbook by Apicius.

We did discover that by modern standards, the cookies needed a little more sugar, so if you don’t mind a lack of authenticity and want to try this recipe, don't be afraid to sneak in some extra honey or a couple of spoonfuls of sugar – or even cover half of each cookie in chocolate, so that they resemble a Roman HobNob!

As sugar was not available in Roman times, honey was often the sweetener of choice. The recipe for these biscuits uses traditional flavours such as nutmeg, cinnamon and honey in true Roman style.

Recipe

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup of oats
• 1/2 cup self-raising flour
• A pinch of cinnamon
• A pinch of ground nutmeg
• 1 tablespoon of oil or 1 medium egg
• 1 tablespoon of milk
• 1/2 tablespoon of honey
• Extra honey and chopped nuts to decorate

Method:

• Mill your oats by blitzing them in a food processor
• Put the milled oats in a bowl with the flour, cinnamon and nutmeg
• Add the oil/egg, milk and honey, and combine into a firm dough. If the dough looks too dry, add some more milk and if it looks too wet, add some more flour.
• Divide the dough into walnut sized balls and squash down to make biscuit shapes
• For authenticity, griddle the biscuits until golden; alternatively bake at 180C for 20-30 minutes
• Drizzle with honey and sprinkle with chopped nuts while still warm.

By A3 pupil Freya P