The table of former times,
The Recipe

Darioles with rose water

Period: Renaissance / Category: dessert

Maestro Martino da Como (15th century), De Arte Coquinaria

Ingredients

for 6 persons :

For the shortcrust pastry (dough to darken) :

  • 250 g of type 55 flour
  • 125 g cold butter cut into pieces
  • 5 cl of water
  • 1/3 teaspoon of fine salt

For garnish :

  • 150 g of powdered cane sugar

  • 3 whole eggs
  • 1 tsp cinnamon powder
  • 3 teaspoons of rose water
  • 3 egg yolks
  • 50 cl milk

The preparation

1- The darkening paste :

  • Pour the flour into the mixer bowl (Kitchenaid type). Add the butter and salt. Mix the flour and butter with the mixer attachment until you obtain a crumble-like shortbread texture.
  • Add the water and mix until the dough is firm.
  • Transfer the dough to the work surface and knead it with the palm of your hand, without working it too much, to make it homogeneous and form a ball.
  • Wrap the ball of shortcrust pastry in cling film and set aside in the refrigerator. This dough can be made several hours in advance, even the day before.

2- Blind cooking :

  • Butter the dariole molds (flan molds) well. This phase is very important in order to facilitate unmolding after cooking.
  • Lightly flour the work surface, roll out the dough with a rolling pin and cut out several circles of dough to line the inside of individual molds (you can also use a large mold to make a pie to share, as in the original recipe*).
  • Coat the inside of each mold with the dough up to the edge.
  • Prick the dough with a fork.
  • Blind bake the darioles in a ventilated oven preheated to 170°C for 10 minutes.
  • Remove the darioles from the oven and raise the temperature to 180°C.

3- The device :

  • Heat the milk over low heat, incorporating the cinnamon so that it infuses.
  • In a large bowl, combine the sugar, whole eggs, egg yolks and rose water, stirring well with a whisk. Then add the cinnamon flavored milk while stirring.
4- Cooking :
  • Divide the mixture into the dariole molds.
  • Bake in the oven at 180°C, rotating heat, for 30 minutes.

Annotations

*For this recipe you can use, as I did, several individual flan molds or, if you prefer, a large flan mold.

Maestro Martino's original version is a pie to share.