MEDIEVAL PASTRIES: Darioles

The dariole is one of several medieval pastries which have survived remarkably well. Some sources describe it as a cream tart and some versions do seem close to flan. This was clearly popular from the start - it appears on a number of menus. But early recipes are rare.

The first published (and very corrupt) edition of the Viandier gives a recipe for "cream darioles" which is frustratingly incomplete: "Crush up almonds, but do not strain them. Fry the cream well in butter. Sweeten well."

The Forme of Cury is more helpful, and also suggests a slightly more flavorful version: "Take cream of cow's milk or almond. Add eggs with sugar, saffron and salt. Mix it well. Put in a coffin [pastry box, basically] II inches deep. Bake it well and serve it forth."

Note that the Viandier's version seems to treat almonds as inherent to the pastry, while the Forme of Cury clearly is offering meat and fast day variants.

La Varenne's 1680 recipe is FAR more complete and basically describes a kind of pie (or almost a giant flan):

Put in a basin or a pan for example the fourth of a litron [1 litron=1.7608 British pint] of fine flour, and the white and yolk of 2 eggs: knead these things together well with a spatula or a spoon, adding a bit of milk little by little, and salt as desired; because not much is needed; soak this flour or mixture well as if it was to make gruel; and when the mixture is well kneaded, add a pint of milk which must be well mixed with the above... and if you do not have cow's milk or that of any other animal, one can use almond milk in which case one must add a bit more flour.
The mixture being ready put a crust in a pie pan and the pie pan being in the oven, fill it sufficiently, with the said mixture; cook this in the oven, and when it is cooked and removed from the oven, slit a cross in it, without touching the crust, then put in the slit in the dariole a piece of good unsalted butter about the size of a walnut; a good eighth of a pint of powdered sugar with a little rose water then put your dariole back in the oven, so that the butter and the sugar melt, and flavor this pastry, which happens quickly, then take it out of the oven; ...

It takes about half an hour to cook a dariole or pie of a pint of milk.

When this dariole is done, you can add butter, sugar and rose water, as said above, otherwise you can simply sprinkle it with sugar and a little rose water.

The almond milk here is again optional. Funny to see rosewater, which you would actually more expect to see in earlier versions.

By 1814, however, Beauvilliers clearly is describing individual portions in what seems to be a standard mold (something like a muffin pan or individual cups?):

Make a crust of pie pastry the thickness of a line [1 line=a twelfth of an inch] and a half; cut it with a dough-cutter big enough that your little crusts spill over the molds of your darioles: give them the proper shapes on the point of your knife, and put them like that in these forms, which you will have buttered; finish giving them their shape by introducing a bit of dough trim the dough spilling over the forms; for twelve darioles, put a tablespoonful of flour, six or eight macarons or bitter marzipain, well crushed, a little salt, some orange blossom, and six raw egg yolks; knead all this with three "fish" [1 fish=1189 decimeters, or a quarter of a pint] of good milk: three quarters of an hour before serving fill your forms, being careful to stir the mixture; put good butter on it, the size of half a hazelnut, then bake them in the oven; once they are baked, take them out of the forms, lay them out on the plate, sprinkle them with fine sugar, and serve them as hot as possible.

NOTE: French macarons are made with almond powder, not coconuts.

An 1860 recipe (from Leblanc's Nouveau Manuel Complet du Patissier) is similar but offers various flavors:

Using fine dough fill 18 small metal cups as for patés in gravy, and put in each a little lump of butter the size of a hazelnut, then pour over it the following garnishing:

Put in a small casserole 30 grams of sifted flour with an egg; stir to make a sort of dough, then add six egg yolks, the same quantity of crushed macarons, another egg, a grain of salt and 125 grams of powdered sugar. Shake the mix well and add a quantity of cream equal to ten full dariole molds, then add the desired flavoring, such as lemon, orange blossom , etc. To make darioles with coffee or chocolate, prepare the cream with the one or the other.

When these darioles are full, put them in a brisk oven; they must only bake enough to rise 7 millimeters above the mold; take them out then glaze them and serve them nice and hot.

(Today, a specialized form - a truncated cone, basically - is actually called a "dariole", but so is the pastry made in it.)

By the twentieth century, one already starts to see "darioles" incorporating meat; this is one of several such recipes in the 1909 Cassell's Household Cookery:

Lamb Darioles with Peas
Required: a pound of lamb, any lean part, four eggs, some peas, sauce, &c., as below. Cost, about 2s. to 2s. 6d.

Lay the raw meat on a board, and scrape it; put the pulp thus obtained in a basin, season to taste, add the eggs, beaten and strained, and a gill of BROWN SAUCE. Fill some moulds, as illustrated, garnish the tops first with some cooked carrot and tongue in thin strips, and cook them in a potato steamer for about half an hour. Prepare the peas by boiling nicely, put them in the middle of the dish, with the darioles round, and pour a little SAUCE DE MENTHE round the base. These little moulds require very thorough buttering to ensure the contents turning out well. The copper ones, tin-lined, are the best, as the cooking is more even, besides lasting much longer.

The treat has endured then in differing forms, with almonds being added either directly or as macarons in a number of versions, and with a variety of additional flavorings, and in more recent centuries even meat.

MEDIEVAL PASTRIES: Flan

The word "flan" is a little like "biscuit", in having taken on almost the opposite meaning as at its origin. Biscuit originally referred to a bread "twice baked" to be harder, but in America now often refers to something much softer. In the sixth century, when Fortunatus described Radegund being served a "flado", the term implied something flat (the word "flan" is still used in mints for a flat surface) before evolving into a filled pastry.

Probably Radegund's version was a pancake, very like one described by Galen:

The flour oil is indeed thrown into a frying pan heated with fire ... : which when it has heated up, wheat flour soaked in a lot of water is poured into it; which rapidly, while it is cooked with the oil, is hardened and thickened like cheese held in a basket ..., and then turned over, placing its upper surface below, so that it also touches the pan, but what was previously below [now is on top], they afterwards turn it over twice or thrice, until the whole cake seems to them to be evenly cooked.

Within a few centuries however, the flado (inflected form "fladone"), now flaon, developed sides high enough to hold a filling. The Cluny hand signs include one for a flado ("pro signo fladorum") combining bread and cheese, suggesting it was already a crust holding cheese. Rudolf of St Trond (c. 1070–1138) says that pastries “must contain five eggs and cheese”. Very likely this referred too to a flan, which then first was made with cheese, even early on with added eggs.

Note that this is a big step in French food history. While pastries - meaning anything served in dough - would be a key feature of late medieval food, they were unknown until about this time and these are some of the few references to anything like them. (While they may well have come from the East, post-Crusades, no direct evidence documents the fact.)

Even as flans are mentioned increasingly, the few early recipes we have for them are for fast days, and replace the filling - probably only cream and eggs by now - with... fish eggs. Luckily, the Vatican version of the Viandier includes a recipe which starts with what is clearly a recipe for a simple flan - before saying to add chunks of scalded and roasted eel.

Here is the start of this recipe for "Nicked flans [flaons cochus]" ("Darioles" here are clearly the shells for the pastry by that name; "powder" was a standard mix of spices - by some accounts, "fine" was white ginger, cinnamon, lump sugar, cloves and grains_of_paradise, "white" was cinnamon, ginger and nutmeg.)

Take cream and well-beaten egg yolks, then place them in the cream, and have larger darioles than those we [generally] make, and mix in fine or white powder..

Modern cooks will likely skip the next step, except perhaps for the sugar:

then take handfuls of large eels and scald them, and roast them well, and cut them into sections, and put them on the said flans, three or four each, and sugar them a great deal once they are baked, and let them cool.

Bonnefons' 1654 recipe combines darioles and flans (which in fact appear to have been similar):

Dariole Stuffing and Flans.

Soak a litron [.813 of a liter] of flour with four eggs, then add a pint [probably .952 of a liter, but it varied] of milk and salt to taste. The tart pastry crust will be made of a suitable dough, and they must be placed in the oven while empty. The mixture will be placed in a copper pot that fits on the end of a baking sheet, which has a spout for pouring into the tart pastry crust.

The Flans are made in the same way, except that there is more flour.

Note that he specifically refers to dough made to use with tarts; this is a rare detailed description of how these could be made:

Pastry of the style to make tarts.

In a bushel of flour, add six pounds of butter and twenty eggs. Soak the mixture in cold water, then quickly work it, wrap it in a white cloth, and take it to a cool place to use it as needed when you want to make tart crusts. You will note that in all pastries, a quarter pound of salt is always required for every bushel of flour, and if the flour is kneaded, only half a quarter is required.

At this point, it seems clear that the early use of cheese quickly gave way to a kind of custard using eggs and cream, and now flour.

Massialot's eighteenth century recipes for "flancs" is not so different, if somewhat more flavored:

Cream Flancs or Crusts

Make a puff pastry crust the thickness of a crown. Lightly dust a pie dish with flour and place the puff pastry crust inside. Make a border around it the height of a finger. Then, put a handful of flour, eggs, powdered sugar, salt, grated lemon, and ground cinnamon in a saucepan. Soak it well with a pint and a half of milk. Place your puff pastry crust in the oven with a little brown butter inside. Then, place a wooden handle on the pan containing your mixture so that you can pour it into the puff pastry crust, which is in the oven, and let it bake for half an hour. Once cooked and beautifully colored, serve it with orange blossom water on top as an entremet.

In 1906, Favrier still called this a "flanc":

Flanc

The real flanc must be made cold and baked in the oven. It requires great care. It is preferable to proceed by pre-baking. A very good flanc is obtained as follows: Mix 100 to 120 grams of flour with 2 eggs and a pinch of salt; add 1 liter of milk at first, in small doses, while continuing to mix. Cook over a heat without letting it boil. When the dough hardens, remove from the heat and stir actively to avoid browning and obtain a very smooth cream. Add 60 to 70 grams of caster sugar, stirring constantly, let cool slightly, and pour into previously lined molds or rings. Bake in the oven at 100 to 120 degrees Celsius (212 to 248 degrees Fahrenheit) until the top is golden brown. Let cool before removing from the mold.

Again, the recipe has not greatly changed here from centuries before. The one big change in some cultures is that the contents of this pastry are sometimes served on their own and called "flan".

It's a long way from that flat cake...

MEDIEVAL PASTRIES: Wafers

Several sites claim wafers existed in ancient Egypt, but offer no substantial documentation. In the West, the wafer began as the unleavened form of the Host. Darcel rather curiously cites an account from 845 to say the first mention of the Eucharist being presented as a wafer (baked between two hot irons) appeared in... the eleventh century. Especially strange given that he says in a footnote that the ninth century origin of the original was proven. Make of that what you will....

What is clear is that going into the eleventh century, the idea of the Host as a wafer became established (it is sometimes even referenced as shaped like a coin). Sometime after this, the secular form became a common treat. Further (as Darcel goes on to say), a lighter version, known in French as "nieules" but in Latin as "nebulae" (clouds) appeared, and was sometimes thrown down from above during Mass or even carried down by birds.

For Lent, in the rules for Cluny, Udalricus refers to items made in irons from fine flour and "called nebulae by Latin speakers". He does not however clearly distinguish these from standard wafers.

Later in the same work, he gives detailed instructions for making wafers:
Of the Hosts how they are to be made.

What pertains to the Eucharist and the Body of God is worthy of being treated with reverence and care; it is proper that this manner of conduct should not be kept silent. First of all whenever it is necessary to make the hosts, but they are especially made before Christmas, or on the day of the Resurrection. For in winter when the nights are long, it is permissible for the brothers to work before dinner for it is not permitted to do this kind of work after a meal. The wheat, of which the Hosts are made, however good it may be naturally and pure, yet it is chosen grain by grain, and washed carefully, by no one other than the brothers themselves. It is then collected in a bag, not just any kind, but one reserved for this alone and made of good cloth; which bound is commended to a servant who is not frivolous; who, carrying it to the mill, washes both sides of the mill, and covers it above and below with curtains, clothes himself in white, and puts it on his head, and ties it over the shoulders, that is, a cloak, so that nothing of the face but the eyes may be seen. And so he grinds, so he sifts the flour, with the first sieve which he washes carefully. The Major Custodian of the Church, if there is no Priest or Deacon, seeks a substitute for him to complete this work. He also seeks out two others of these orders acquainted with this matter, having received permission from the Prior, and a Lay Brother. These four selected, at night they put on socks, wash their faces and hands, and cover their heads. Then they retire to the Altar of St. Benedict, and there sing the morning Laudes. The first also at the same time, and the seven psalms with the litanies, expanding in the meantime on the rest of the psalms. Then those three, of any order, clothe themselves in whites and shoulder-cloths, as was said above of the servant, (for there are some whites and cloaks assigned to this business only), one of whom sprinkles the flour and stirs it vigorously on a board having a different border all around, a little higher all around, so that the water cannot escape. They sprinkle it with cold water, because from it the Hosts become whiter; the remaining two shape Hosts; water is not carried in any other vessel than that in which it is usually carried to Masses. The lay brother holds the irons, in which they are to be baked, stamped, in his gloved hand. One can put six Hosts in the iron at the same time; whence between the bottom of the iron and the forms for the Hosts a table is set and two stakes are driven over this on which the wood is held transversely, on which are put the irons for Hosts. Those which have not been baked are scraped with a knife, and fall in a dish downwards on the board, and always covered with a cloth, except when the Hosts are scraped.
They sing the remaining Psalms, and if they will, the Hours of St. Mary. At all other hours they keep silence, and take great care that neither their saliva nor their breath may in any way touch the Hosts. Only the lay brother, if required, briefly informs the servants, who make a fire only from dry wood, and industriously made for this purpose. Now those who worked with the Hosts do not themselves take refreshment with the Brethren, but rather with the servants; and for the relief of so much labor they have from the Sacristan for a meal a pittance and spiced wine.

We also have a curious passage from Anjou in 1096 which describes what appears to be a highly flavored variant of the wafer:

one of those who, in the delights of a feast, are wont to prepare bread [sic] made of flour strewn with eggs and sprinkled with crushed pepper, to stimulate the appetite, was present, and he offered the service of making and baking these breads, which they call wafers. He had heated the iron instrument, as you have often seen, for baking bread of this kind, and had opened those open iron plates, which, chained together, are now opened and now relaxed, receiving what was to be cooked.

The full history of wafers, nieules and their variants is dizzyingly complex and includes things like wafers being used for gambling and "waferers" (an official trade early on), likely illegitimate, casing homes for robbery. Readers of French can explore all that here.

Early on, the wafer became a standard dessert and so in a series of menus offered in the Ménagier de Paris a number end with wafers and spiced wine:"The sixth and last course for Issue. Sugared flawns and larded milk, peeled nuts, cooked pears and comfits. Hippocras and wafers."; "Fourth course. Hippocras and wafers for Issue.";"Issue. Figs and raisins, hippocras and wafers as aforesaid."

Sometimes one sees the word 'mestier", which by different accounts refers to a set of wafers or a one very large one. Later it appears to be made with wine.

Elsewhere the text hints at richer wafers:"From the wafer maker, a dozen and a half of ready-made cheese wafers, to wit made of flour kneaded with eggs and leches of cheese rolled therein, and eighteen other wafers kneaded with eggs and without cheese." It also includes several recipes for wafers, though the word used here (gaufres) can also mean waffles [just as wastel and gastel were the same word, with only a consonant shift, so were wafer and gaufre]:

Wafers (Gauffres) be made in five ways. By one method you beat up the eggs in a bowl, then add salt and wine and throw in flour, and mix them, and then put them on two irons, little by little, each time as much paste as the size of a leche or strip of cheese, and press them between the two irons and cook on both sides ; and if the iron doth not separate easily from the paste, grease it beforehand with a little cloth moistened in oil or fat. The second method is like to the first, but you put in cheese, that is to wit you spread out the paste as though to make a tart or pasty, and then you add the cheese in leches in the middle and cover the two ends ; this the cheese remaineth between the two pastes and is this set between two irons. The third method is that of Strained Waffles ( Gaufres couleisses ) and they be called Strained for this reason only, that the paste is clearer and it as it were boiled clear, after the aforesaid manner ; and onto it one scatters grated cheese ; and all is mixed together.— The fourth method is flour made into a paste with water, salt and wine without either eggs or cheese. 
Item, the wafer makers make another kind called big sticks ( gros batons), which be made of flour made into a paste with eggs and powdered ginger beaten together, and then made of like size and in like manner to chitterlings, between two irons.

Note that even these elaborate versions still do not include a sweetener.

The actual wafers appear to have been round. Darcel shows one that was round and many may have yield something like larger versions of the Host. But some surviving irons end in small rectangles, so the shape becomes uncertain.

In the sixteenth century, Charles Estienne (or his son in law Liébault) included this passage about wafers and mestiers in the Maison Rustique, translated soon after into English:

some make wafers of the flower of wheate meale very well soked in water, and tempered a long time there with, untill it come to a certaine thicknes, mixing therewith a little salt finely powdred, and after causing the same to be baked betwixt two irons made hot, first with a reasonable gentle fire, and after annointed with the oile of nuts, these kindes of wafers a man may see made in many places openly and abroad upon festivall and solemne feast daies. There may be made a tendrer and more delicate kinde of wafers, in soaking the flower of the wheate ineale in white wine and water mixt together, and throughly laboured and wrought, putting thereto afterward the yolkes of egges, a little sugar and salt, and so baking altogither betwixt two irons, having within them many raced and checkered draughts, after the manner of small squares, after that the saide irons have beene annointed with fresh butter or oile olive. This fort of wafers is wont to be set on tables at the second courses in solemne banquets. That which the Parisians do call Mestier, is made of the same flower of wheate meale tempered with water and white wine, putting thereto a little sugar, and boiling it all betwixt two irons, after the manner which you used in making of wafers, but that it must not bee altogether so thicke. The kinde of wafers called Oublies, are made with hony in steed of sugar.
Here we have the first mention of sugar, which in general was becoming more common in France at this point.
Bonnefons' recipe from 1688 is slightly confusing, but distinctly richer

Little Mestier, and Wafers
The dough is made with a pound of flour, a pound of sugar, two eggs, and a pint of water; dissolve the sugar in the cold water, and mix the flour to a somewhat hard consistency with the sugared water, then put in the eggs, beat all this well mixing in the rest of the water bit by bit, after which you will add in an ounce of good fresh butter, which melt with a little water, pour it very hot over your dough, mixing all quickly together, try it in your irons, prepare it as for Hosts; if it is too weak, add in flour; and if too strong water too lift them [sic], roll them in your palm, drawing them towards you quickly, and squeeze them dry.

The wafers are made the same way, except that to spare sugar, one uses good honey.

Not a big help in distinguishing between a mestier and a wafer....

Recipes are rare for these over time, yet persist into the twentieth century. In 1904, Favrais published "another recipe for wafers" (it seems to be the only one he offers):

Use the following quantities:
175g flour, one whole egg, 50g sugar, and half a liter of milk. Make a well-kneaded dough, cut into rounds, and mold into a waffle iron.

This is actually simpler than some of the earlier recipes.

The wafer was an enduring and important food, long a common street food. It might be fun to make some of these recipes just as small pancakes, lacking irons.