What are Jumble Cookies?
"Jumbles (other spellings Jambles, Jumbals, Jumbolls, Jumbolds) are cookie-like pastry, common in England and abroad since the middle ages, which tend to have a relatively simple recipe of nuts, flour, eggs, and sugar, with vanilla, anise, or caraway seed used for flavoring. They were formerly often made in the form of rings or rolls."
"Jumbles were known by many variations on the basic
name, including jambal, jemelloe, and gemmel. They
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."
It was the shape, not the flavour, that characterized early jumbles.
"Jumbals were traditionally shaped in intricate loop or knot patterns, usually of rolled out dough. Early flavouring agents were aniseed, coriander, caraway seeds and rosewater. Later, jumbals referred, especially in the United States, to a thin crisp cake or cookie using e.g. lemon-peel as a flavouring agent."
"In Australia, Arnotts manufacture a related product called Honey Jumbles."
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________
History
"Jumbles were widespread in Europe by the
17th century, but possibly originated in Italy
as the cimabetta. A very common cookie for
travelers, they probably were brought to
America on the Mayflower, if not Jamestown
previously. There is even a famous recipe
credited to Martha Washington."
"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 leaveners used in
modern recipes."
Etymology
"The word "jumble" is derived from the Latin gemel, meaning "twin", because of their shape. The use of the word "jumble" for cookie predates the use of the word "jumble" to indicate "a mixture of stuff", possibly allowing for the pastry as the origin of the modern meaning."
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________
1685 Recipe: The Accomplist Cook
(London, 5th edition, 1685) contains this recipe, which is
probably quite similar to the one that the original Mayflower
passengers used:
To make Jambals: "Take a pint of fine wheat flour, the yolks of three or four new laid eggs, three or four spoonfuls of sweet cream, a few anniseeds, and some cold butter, make it into paste, and roul it into long rouls, as big as a little arrow, make them into divers knots, then boil them in fair water like simnels; bake them, and being baked, box them and keep them in a stove. Thus you may use them, and keep them all year." (p. 275) "
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________
Anonymous: "Two cups of butter, two of sugar, three eggs,
as much flour as will make it thin, and any good spice you like.”
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________
Buffalo Jumbles or Cookies
4 eggs
2 cups sugar
1cup butter
1 teaspoon soda
1 teaspoon lemon extract
Add flour enough to make a soft dough.
Roll very think, (handle as little as possible)
cut in rounds then with thimble cut out center.
Bake in a hot oven
Soft Jumbles Cookie
2/3 cup butter
1 cup sugar
3 eggs
1 cup milk
2 teaspoons baking powder
3 cups flour
grated rind of 1 lemon
Drop by teaspoon on a greased pan & bake
until golden brown.
Lemon Jumbles Cookies
1 egg
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup butter
3 teaspoons milk
2 teaspoons baking powder
flavor with lemon
Add enough flour to mix stiff, cut thin.
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________
