The World That Was - Apple and Walnut Cookies from Colchis

Hello and Welcome to The World That Was

Today, we'll be taking a look at a recipe from the kingdom of Colchis! A sweet apple-based treat, that’s much like a cake or cookie! Colchis roughly covers the same area as modern-day western Georgia, but it's origins date back to the middle 13th century BC - around the same time as the Middle Assyrian Empire!

In any case, let's now take a look at The World That Was! Follow along with my YouTube video above!

Ingredients

2 cups plain flour

1 tsp salt

1 tsp cinnamon

3 apples (either cooking or eating apples)

1/4 cup cream

1 cup cream cheese

1 cup greek yoghurt

1/2 cup walnuts

Method

1 - Prepare Applesauce

To begin with, we need to make a basic applesauce! Start by peeling a few small apples, before chopping and coring them. Then, dice each of these chunks into small pieces.

Toss the remaining apples into a small pot with some water - enough to just about cover them. Pour a few tablespoons of honey into the pot too. Then place this over a medium-high heat for about 15-20 minutes - or until they break down into a fairly smooth paste. If you want a very smooth paste, use an blender! Leave your completed applesauce to cool off a bit before moving on with the recipe!

2 - Cook Remaining Apples

Now we need to cook some apples! Put a few tablespoons of butter into a pan, and put this over medium-high heat until the butter melts.

Take the remaining apple chunks you reserved, and toss these into the frying pan when the butter starts to separate like you can see here. Cook this for about 5 minutes, or until the chunks of apple start to take on a golden complexion! Take them off the heat, and let them cool down while you deal with your dry ingredients.

3 - Prepare the Mix

While your applesauce is cooling, go tend to your dry ingredients. Into a large bowl, place two cups of plain flour, a teaspoon of salt, and a shake of cinnamon. Cinnamon would have been extremely rare in antiquity, so only the superbly rich would have been able to afford using it - given that it had to be imported. However today, you can get it at most supermarkets, so you can include it here! Also it just pairs really well with apples. In any case, mix this all together, and set it aside.

Then pour about a 1/4 of a cup's worth of applesauce. On top of this, pour a 1/4 of a cup of heavy cream, and your cup of soft cheese - I'm using cream cheese, because it works well, but is unlikely to be used in Colchis. Finally, add a cup of Greek yoghurt and a small amount of honey. Mix all of this together until it forms a smooth mix.

5 - Mix the Ingredients

Now go toss your cup's worth of walnuts into the bowl. I didn't chop my walnuts, because I wanted large pieces, but you can roughly chop yours if you want. Mix this together, before pouring in your cooked apples! Fold and work everything together into a relatively cohesive dough, and the apples and walnuts are well-distributed.

6 - Form the Cakes

Take a tablespoon of dough in a large spoon, and place the dollop on some baking paper. Do this with your remaining dough, and place these on some baking paper on a tray. Lightly press them down, so they're slightly spread out.

7 - Bake

Place your finished cakes into a preheated oven set to 150C or 300F, for about 25-35 minutes, depending on the size of your cakes, and what kind of oven you have.

These cakes are soft and incredibly light, yet very sweet. The earthiness of the walnuts really complements the sweet spectrum given off by the honey and the tartness of the apples. Colchis is referenced in the Ancient Greek poet Pindar's tale of Jason and the Argonauts, who went to Colchis in search of a Golden Fleece.

The original recipe may have been prepared as a single, large cake rather than several smaller cookies, but I chose to make smaller cookies because they'd keep longer after making them! If you wanted to make these into a cake, you'd have to increase the temperature of your oven and cook time slightly.