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The Museum of London’s website notes that "Bakers and confectioners made special cakes, wafers and biscuits to celebrate religious festivals, saints' days and other events in the Church calendar … [Molds were used] for the mass-production of 'almond breads' (marzipan) or 'bisket breads' made from fine flour, eggs and sugar coloured with saffron or some other natural colourant." Georg Flegel's Still Life with Bread and Confectionary includes a heart-shaped molded bread likely made on a mold similar to these. We can actually see these sorts of molds in use in the illustration of Hanns Buel (d. 1520) in the Landauer Hausbuch. For modern cookies made from these sorts of molds, visit Goode Cookys. See also Cake Boards and History of the Use of Cookie Molds for further history of these molds; HOBI Cookie Molds includes several more examples from the 17th century onwards. Molded Cookies in History features the story of the Biddenden Maids.
Per far caliscioni.
Prenderai simil pieno o compositione quale è la sopraditta del marzapane, et apparichiarai la sua pasta, la quale impastarai con zuccharo et acqua rosata; et distendi la ditta pasta a modo che si volesse fare ravioli, gli mettirai di questo pieno facendoli grandi et mezani o piccioli como ti pare. Et havendo qualche forma de ligno ben lavorata con qualche gentileza et informandoli et premendoli di sopra pariranno più belli a vedere. Poi li farai cocere in la padella como il marzapane havendo bona diligentia che non s’ardino. Libro de arte coquinaria [Translation] Marzipan Sweetmeats: Caliscioni To make caliscioni, take a filling or mixture similar to that for the aforementioned marzipan torta, and make your dough, which you should make with sugar and rose water; and roll out that dough as though you were making ravioli, and put on this filling, making them big, medium-sized, or small, as you prefer. And if you have an elegantly carved wooden mold, mold them, pressing it onto their tops; they will be nicer to look at. Then cook them in a shallow pan, like marzipan, taking great care that they do not burn. The Medieval Kitchen: Some additional recipes for foods that may have used these sorts of molds: almond chanterelles, zerena, a molded & fried pastry, Nuremburg lebkuchen, and small holliplen from The Cookbook of Sabrina Welserin, 1553; sugar paste from Ouverture de Cuisine, 1604; sugar-paste and delicate and stiff sugar paste from Delights for Ladies, 1609. |
