The Simple 1,300-Year-Old Ancient Tomb Cookie Recipe That Blew Me Away
Holding Tomb cookies
Vintage recipes are trending right now, but this recipe for ancient jam tartlet cookies is guaranteed to be the oldest recipe you will ever make.
As the story goes, in 1915, the British-Hungarian archeologist Marc Aurel Stein opened a tomb (dating back to the 3rd and 9th centuries) in Xinjiang, China. What Stein found, among other things, were these pretty little jam-studded cookies.
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.
That charming story, plus the fact that I love to bake and it's winter so what else is a person to do, inspired me to give the recipe a try in my own kitchen. Here's what happened.
Get the recipe: Ancient Jam Tartlets
Courtesy of Jessica Wrubel
Ingredients for The 1,300-Year-Old Ancient Tomb Cookies
To make Ahmad's version of the ancient jam tartlet, you need the following ingredients: butter, sugar, eggs, flour, purple grapes and apricot jam. Ahmad says he decided on grapes with apricot jam for the filling since the Turpan Basin is still famed for its grapes, and apricots hail from Central Asia and China.
Related: These Vintage Black Forest Christmas Cookies Are Surprisingly Easy
How to Make The 1,300-Year-Old Ancient Tomb Cookies
Start by creaming the butter and sugar together. Add the egg and blend well. Gradually add in the flour. The dough will be creamy, yellow and firm. Let it rest in the fridge for 30 minutes. If your purple grapes are on the larger side, slice them in half. Then, in a bowl, gently mix the grapes with the apricot jam until the grapes are fully coated.
Take the cookie dough out of the fridge and divide it into 24 pieces, then roll each piece into a ball. Place the dough balls on a parchment-lined cookie sheet and score them crosswise four times with a fork, creating a pattern resembling an asterisk. Using your thumb, make an indent in the center of the cookies then add a jam-covered grape to each cavity. Bake the cookies at 350° until they're golden brown on the top and along the edges, which took about 12 minutes in my oven.
Related: The 150-Year-Old Cookie Recipe That's Wildly Simple
Courtesy of Jessica Wrubel
What I Thought of The 1,300-Year-Old Ancient Tomb Cookies
I wasn’t really sure what to think about these cookies because they had only six ingredients and seemed pretty basic. I really thought that they wouldn’t taste like much, but I was pleasantly surprised—these were tasty. They are nicely crisp, well-caramelized on the bottom from the apricot jam and the tops were really soft. The little grape in the middle is a pleasant, juicy surprise. The cookie itself is basic but solid. These would be fantastic for a crowd or party because they're easy to make and one batch makes two dozen cookies.
Related: The Original 1938 Toll House Cookie Recipe
Courtesy of Jessica Wrubel
Tips for Making The 1,300-Year-Old Ancient Tomb Cookies
1. Make sure your butter is super-soft before baking. Having softened butter from the beginning will make creaming it with the sugar much easier. I let my butter sit out for a few hours and I was able to cream it all by hand. (Looking for a quicker way to soften butter for baking? Try this trick.)
2. Don't fret if your dough is crumbly. My dough was pretty crumbly when I took it out of the fridge, so I sprinkled a couple of tablespoons of water on it to make it pliable. It did just the trick, and all two dozen of my cookies came out perfectly.
3. Use what you have. The original recipe calls for apricot jam because apricots hail from Central Asia and China, but feel free to use what you have on hand.
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