Cakes and Biscuits

Cooks have used pepper in baking since ancient times, In 400BC the Greeks included pepper with nuts, seeds and honey wrapped in sweet pastry – my inspiration for Peppered Fig Parcels. Similar ingredients appear in the recipes in Apicius, the classical Roman cookbook:

‘Pound pepper, pine nuts, honey, rue and passum (sweet raisin wine). Cook with milk and tracta (dough). Cook the thickened mixture with a little egg. Serve drenched in honey and sprinkled in pepper.’ (Apicius 7.11.5 Grocock and Grainger)