Tarte of Strawberies
Seson your Strawberyes with sugar, a very little Sinamon, a little ginger, and so cover them with a cover, and you must lay upon the cover a morsell of sweet Butter, Rosewater and Sugar, you may Ice the cover if you will, you must make your Ice with the white of an egge beaten, and Rosewater and Sugar.
A Book of Cookrye, 1591
Direction:
If using small wild strawberries, just leave whole, but if you can only get the larger varieties, cut them up fairly small (like large peas). Add sugar to taste (only you know how sweet your strawberries are, use what you think reasonable) and then sprinkle a little cinnamon and ginger over the top before covering the pie with the top pastry. Here is the fun part, combine in a little rosewater with some sugar in a small bowl. Beware! rosewater an be overpowering for some so it's best to add very little at a time until you are satisfied with the flavour and scent. Rub a little butter over the pie crust (don't be too stingy) and then sprinkle over with the rose/sugar mixture.
This pie didn't have the additional egg-white and rose-sugar icing but rather just the first mixture that formed a rather nice glazed topping in the oven. Egg-white based icings tend to make a hard glaze which is also desireable. We suspect the pie would not be nearly as yummy without the initial glaze. This was cooked in a regular baking oven (350F) until to took on a nice golden colour and the filling was bubbly. Do let the pie sit to cool, it will be far to messy to cut into until then.
Notes:
I ended up using a form to make up the pie because I wanted a raised pie and happened to have some short pastry to use up, ideally one would make up a proper pastry for the job or put it in a pie basin, however it did seem to work when placed into a round form while cooking.
To go back to the recipe list,please click on the back button of your browser