Sweet Medieval Things. Payn Puff

I'm making the pastry, an unusual pastry, for a dish called pan-puff, Anglo-Norman French for puff bread. It's unusual because it's made using cream. It also has an interesting history and evolution during the 14th and 15th centuries in England. In form of curry, King Richard II's cookery treatise, the recipe lacks a particular detail. It says puff bread should be made the same way, but make the pastry dough softer. And look that the pastry of the puff bread is round, like a pastry case or a pie. So we're not told how to make the pastry softer, just that we should make it in the same way as the previous recipe. In the previous recipe, for the dish of the petit bain-marie, which may mean the little grasp, indicating a small hand-sized pie, the instruction is to make sure the pastry is made with egg yolks and no water is added. This recipe also explains the filling for both of these dishes. Raw marrow, that's bone marrow, powder of ginger, sugar, egg yolks, minced dates, raisins of Corinth, also known as currants, and a little salt. Going back to our pain-puff, how do I know this more tender pastry should be made with cream? Well that's because the recipe also appears in a 15th century Bodleian library manuscript, the recipes of which are thought to be originally from the 14th century. The recipe reads, take cream, flour, yolks, sugar, from these make your pastry dough and let it rest an hour or two. The ingredients for the filling are the same as are used in Richard II's book, minus the ginger. Intriguingly, the direction is given to put the filling in the middies of thy loaf, in the middle of your loaf, strongly suggesting that the pastry is meant to look like a typically round loaf of bread, or little bread rolls in my case, with the delight of discovering the sweet fruit filling inside. The recipe doesn't stay still however. In a mid-15th century recipe, the egg yolks remain but the cream is dropped from the pastry recipe, and yeast is added. It would seem even more puff was wanted. The filling loses the bone marrow, as it does in my recipe, but otherwise remains recognisable. Ginger is back in the filling and also in the dough. What I find helpful about this particular recipe is it tells the cook to take thee aforesaid paste and make cakes of a shape more than bread. Take thee aforesaid paste and make cakes of a bread shape. Take a portion of the same stuffing and put it in and take and wet the sides with water and then fold it together upright. As you can see, I essentially follow these instructions in making my own little pan puffs. If you'd like the recipes for pan puffs, then head on over to either my website or my Buy Me A Coffee page, where you'll find a downloadable fully tested recipe. And if you would like to support my independent research and creative work, I'm always happy and grateful when folk make a small donation, or even better become a premium content subscriber. Links are in the description under the video. So it must be about that time when you see me eating what I've made. One does need just a hint of cream. The light flaky pastry envelops the gently spiced raisin of Corinth and date filling. The dark muscovado providing a caramel note. Heavenly indeed. No surprise then that the Bishop of Durham, Walter Scurlaw, rumour has it he was the son of a sieve maker, served King Richard II pan puff when he happened to pop by for a feast. I'll settle for eating mine in my kitchen.