The headline of the article was “This simple 1300-year-old ancient tomb cookie recipe blew me away”

 

This recipe was included in a Kansas City Star article ( Jan 21, 2024) about a cookie found in a 1300 year old tomb in China. 

The headline of the article was 

“This simple 1300-year-old ancient tomb cookie recipe blew me away”  

A quote from the article said:

“ After seeing a picture online of the cookies, Nadeem Ahmad, the founder of Eran ud Turan, a living history group based in the United Kingdom, took it upon himself to reverse-engineer the ancient dessert for the modern-day cookie lover.  Ahmad says he decided on grapes and apricot jam since the Turpan basin is still famed for its grapes and apricots hail from Central           Asia and China.”

A picture of the ingredients shows the flour to be White Lily which is a low gluten flour. I substituted cake flour.

I read once, quite a while ago, that wheat is grown in the northern part of China.  Google tells me that Turpan is in a region where winter and spring wheat is grown. I added a teaspoon of salt to the recipe.

Ancient Jam Tartlets

Ingredients

1 stick butter, softened

1 C. sugar

1 egg

2 C. flour

Purple, seedless grapes, either 12 large or 24 small ones

2 T. apricot jam

Instructions

Mix the softened butter with the sugar, then add the egg and blend until completely incorporated.

Gradually ad in the flour, and mix well. The dough will be firm and creamy yellow.  Let it rest in the fridge for at least 30 minutes.  Wash the grapes and if large, cut in half.  Gently mix with the apricot jam until they are completely coated. 

Take the dough out of the fridge and divide it into 24 pieces about and inch in diameter. 

Preheat oven to 350º

Place the balls on a silicone baking sheet on the cookie sheet/pan.  Score them cross-wise four times creating an asterisk pattern (*) Place the jam coated grape in a center depression made with your thumb.

.

Bake 12 to 15 minutes