Jumbles are simple butter cookies made with a basic recipe of flour, sugar, eggs, and butter. They can be flavored with vanilla, anise, or caraway seed used for flavoring, or other flavoring can be used like almond. They were formerly often made in the form of rings or rolls.
Jumbles were widespread, specifically because they travelled well, thanks to their very dense, hard nature. They could be stored for up to a year without becoming too stale. Because of their density, they were sometimes twisted into knots before baking, in order to make them easier to eat, generating knots as another common name.
Jumbles were traditionally shaped in intricate loop or knot patterns, usually of rolled out dough. Early flavouring agents were aniseed, coriander, caraway seeds and rosewater.[1] Later, especially in the United States, jumbles referred to a thin crisp cake or cookie[2] using lemon-peel as a flavoring agent.
Terminology
Jumbles and cookies are very similar, and sometimes a jumble may be called a cookie, but cookie is a broader term for any small flat cake, used for small cakes as well as crisp ones, while jumbles are usually of the crisp variety.[3]
A 1907 recipe for jumbles describes their texture as "crisp like snaps". The dough should be "so thin after rolling and cutting out, that one can almost see through them". The only moisture in the recipe is the creamed butter and "a scant cupful of milk or enough to make a stiff dough about like pie crust".[4]
History
19th-century illustration of a young girl with a plate of jumbles
A recipe for "Almond Jumballs" is known from 1694, made by combining ground almond with orange flower water or rose water, then adding sugar syrup, dry sugar and egg whites. The ingredients were pounded to make a paste and could be colored with chocolate or cochineal. They were brushed with lemon juice or rose water for enhanced flavor and very gently baked, with the caution that "it is best to sett them on something that they may not touch the bottome of the Oven."[5]
Jumbles were widespread in Europe by the 17th century,[6] but possibly originated in Italy as the cimabetta.[citation needed] A very common cookie for travelers, they were probably brought to America on the Mayflower,[citation needed] if not Jamestown previously. There is even a famous recipe for this type of cookie that is credited to Martha Washington.
An 18th-century recipe from The Compleat Housewife is made by beating three egg whites with milk, flour, sugar and caraway seeds into a stiff paste. They could be made in any shape and baked on baking parchment.
Originally, jumbles were twisted into various pretzel-like shapes and boiled. By the late 18th century, jumbles became rolled cookies that were baked, producing a cookie very similar to a modern sugar cookie, although without the baking powder or other leavening agents used in modern recipes.[7]
Victorian cookbooks contain recipes for many variations on the basic recipe with candied fruits, coconut, lemon, and other flavorings added.
Preparation
To make jumbles butter and sugar are creamed together, then eggs or egg yolks are added, sometimes with milk, depending on the type of jumbles being made. Then the dry ingredients are added: flour, and any other ingredients like grated coconut, flavor extracts, and spices like cloves, cinnamon or allspice. Baking soda or baking powder can be added, and raisins. Sometimes the egg whites are whipped to a froth and added separately after the dried ingredients. The cookie dough can be rolled in sugar or cinnamon before baking. Techniques vary from recipe to recipe. There are many different types of jumbles: sugar jumbles, coconut jumbles, cinnamon jumbles, fruit jumbles (hermits).[8] A 1907 recipe for "cocoanut jumbles" is made with a 1:3 ratio of butter to sugar.[9]
Etymology
The word "jumble" is derived from the French jumelle, meaning "twin", because of their shape.[7][10]
Dessert is a course that concludes a meal. The course consists of sweet foods, such as cake, biscuit, ice cream and possibly a beverage such as dessert wine and liqueur. Some cultures sweeten foods that are more commonly savory to create desserts. In some parts of the world there is no tradition of a dessert course to conclude a meal.
Pastry is baked food made with a dough of flour, water, and shortening that may be savoury or sweetened. Sweetened pastries are often described as bakers' confectionery. The word "pastries" suggests many kinds of baked products made from ingredients such as flour, sugar, milk, butter, shortening, baking powder, and eggs. Small tarts and other sweet baked products are called pastries as a synecdoche. Common pastry dishes include pies, tarts, quiches, croissants, and pasties.
A chocolate chip cookie is a drop cookie that features chocolate chips or chocolate morsels as its distinguishing ingredient. Chocolate chip cookies are claimed to have originated in the United States in 1938, when Ruth Graves Wakefield chopped up a Nestlé semi-sweet chocolate bar and added the chopped chocolate to a cookie recipe; however, historical recipes for grated or chopped chocolate cookies exist prior to 1938 by various other authors.
Pound cake is a type of cake traditionally made with a pound of each of four ingredients: flour, butter, eggs, and sugar. Pound cakes are generally baked in either a loaf pan or a Bundt mold. They are sometimes served either dusted with powdered sugar, lightly glazed, or with a coat of icing.
Shortbread or shortie is a traditional Scottish biscuit usually made from one part white sugar, two parts butter, and three to four parts plain wheat flour. Shortbread does not contain any leavening, such as baking powder or baking soda. Shortbread is widely associated with Christmas and Hogmanay festivities in Scotland, and some Scottish brands are exported around the world.
Icing, or frosting, is a sweet, often creamy glaze made of sugar with a liquid, such as water or milk, that is often enriched with ingredients like butter, egg whites, cream cheese, or flavorings. It is used to coat or decorate baked goods, such as cakes. When it is used between layers of cake it is known as a filling.
A macaroon is a small cake or cookie, originally made from ground almonds, egg whites, and sugar, and now often with coconut or other nuts. They may also include jam or chocolate or other flavorings.
Shortcake generally refers to a dessert with a crumbly scone-like texture. There are multiple variations of shortcake, most of which are served with fruit and cream. One of the most popular is strawberry shortcake, which is typically served with whipped cream. Other variations common in the UK are blackberry and clotted cream shortcake and lemon berry shortcake, which is served with lemon curd in place of cream.
Rice pudding is a dish made from rice mixed with water or milk and commonly other ingredients such as sweeteners, spices, flavourings and sometimes eggs.
A snickerdoodle is a type of cookie made with flour, fat, sugar, and salt, and rolled in cinnamon sugar. Eggs may also sometimes be used as an ingredient, with cream of tartar and baking soda added to leaven the dough. Snickerdoodles are characterized by a cracked surface and can be either crisp or soft depending on the ingredients used.
Portuguese sweet bread refers to an enriched sweet bread or yeasted cake originating from Portugal. Historically, these sweet breads were generally reserved for festive occasions such as Easter or Pentecost and were typically given as gifts. However, in contemporary times, many varieties are made and consumed year round. Outside of Portugal, Portuguese "sweet bread" translated as "pão doce" is often associated with Azorean "massa sovada" which are similar but traditionally prepared differently.
A sugar cookie, or sugar biscuit, is a cookie with the main ingredients being sugar, flour, butter, eggs, vanilla, and either baking powder or baking soda. Sugar cookies may be formed by hand, dropped, or rolled and cut into shapes. They may be decorated with additional sugar, icing, sprinkles, or a combination of these. Decorative shapes and figures can be cut into the rolled-out dough using a cookie cutter.
Quick bread is any bread leavened with a chemical leavening agent rather than a biological one like yeast or sourdough starter. An advantage of quick breads is their ability to be prepared quickly and reliably, without requiring the time-consuming skilled labor and the climate control needed for traditional yeast breads.
Christmas cookies or Christmas biscuits are traditionally sugar cookies or biscuits cut into various shapes related to Christmas.
Kürtőskalács is a spit cake specific to Hungarians from Transylvania, more specifically the Székelys. Originally popular in the Székely Land, it became popular in both Hungary and Romania. The first written record dates back to 1679 and was found in the village of Úzdiszentpéter, while the first recipe appears in a manuscript cookbook dated in 1781. Earlier a festive treat, now it is part of everyday consumption. A similar pastry to kürtőskalács is Baumstriezel, originating in the Transylvanian Saxon communities.
Sponge cake is a light cake made with eggs, flour and sugar, sometimes leavened with baking powder. Some sponge cakes do not contain egg yolks, like angel food cake, but most of them do. Sponge cakes, leavened with beaten eggs, originated during the Renaissance, possibly in Spain. The sponge cake is thought to be one of the first non-yeasted cakes, and the earliest attested sponge cake recipe in English is found in a book by the English poet Gervase Markham, The English Huswife, Containing the Inward and Outward Virtues Which Ought to Be in a Complete Woman (1615). Still, the cake was much more like a cracker: thin and crispy. Sponge cakes became the cake recognised today when bakers started using beaten eggs as a rising agent in the mid-18th century. The Victorian creation of baking powder by English food manufacturer Alfred Bird in 1843 allowed the addition of butter to the traditional sponge recipe, resulting in the creation of the Victoria sponge. Cakes are available in many flavours and have many recipes as well. Sponge cakes have become snack cakes via the Twinkie.
Pie in American cuisine has roots in English cuisine and has evolved over centuries to adapt to American cultural tastes and ingredients. The creation of flaky pie crust shortened with lard is credited to American innovation.
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