Professor Butter Beard and the “Book of Deer”
“The World is a circle without a beginning,
and nobody knows where it really ends ...
Everything depends on where you
are in the circle that never begins.
Nobody knows where the circle ends ...”
- Burt Bacharach, written for “Lost Horizon,” 1973
I remember very vividly the afternoon our elementary school chorus went on a field trip to see “Lost Horizon,” the “musical movie.” Our chorus director packed us into the bus and did her best to encourage peace among us as we travelled to Chapel Hill Mall and the movie theater. If we saved up six Pepsi bottle caps, we got in for half price. But, much to the director’s chagrin, I think many of those necessary caps were used as ammunition on the bus journey.
In his 2013 autobiography, Bacharach cites “Lost Horizon” as very nearly ending his musical career, but I was mesmerized. The idea of a hidden paradise where everyone wore colorful robes and sang and danced their every thought was many a dream come true. For weeks, I ran through the rooms in our home, twirling streamers of toilet paper, singing “The World is a Circle” and plotting how I could escape to Shangri-La.
I think that dancing journey was the beginning of my commitment to the idea of “circles.” I noticed them everywhere. This attachment manifests itself in all aspects of my journey – my way of seeing and understanding art, my Buddhist studies, my understanding of history, and even within my baking. They are what first drew me to my connection with Scottish medieval art. The concentric weaving of the animal and plant forms mesmerizes me into a form of meditation and calms my very being.
The 10th century “Book of Deer” is a perfect example. The origin of this “pocket gospel book” is uncertain, but many scholars now assume that the manuscript was at Deer, Aberdeenshire, Scotland, when the marginalia (marks made within the margins) were made. While the manuscripts to which the Book of Deer is closest in character are all Irish, most scholars argue for a Scottish origin, although the book was undoubtedly written by an Irish scribe. It is now fully accepted as the earliest surviving Gaelic writing from Scotland.
The Celtic historian Jane Geddes confirms that the Book of Deer adheres to the general format of these pocket gospels which follow a logical pattern, “with apparently four evangelists at the beginning, a single evangelist at the start of each gospel, greater emphasis paid to the complete text of John, with a final picture illustrating its last chapter, and then finally the evangelists again, followed by a pattern page.”
The illumination of St Luke is my personal favorite. Initially, he appears mystified to find himself contained in a decorated frame of writhing serpents and plaited ropes (which always bring thoughts of brioche to mind…). He is depicted as such a simple being with his triangular head with a tidy flattop haircut (I know it is tonsured…), button eyes admiring something outside his caged frame, high arching eyebrows and a Jimmy Durante nose. Circular petal shapes form his robes with two more oddly huge circles highlighting his knees within a square skirt/kilt and then tiny little circles suggesting his sandaled feet. His severely horizontal outstretched arms intersect the frame suggesting the form of the cross, but I often wonder if they are actually taming the writhing demon snakes and keeping them at bay alongside his withering gaze and God-gifted power.
The scriptorium that produced the illuminated gospel book may have had very little paint due to limited funds or resources, and may have not been used to mixing colors, since only yellow and a pinkish brown were used. The vellum, or calfskin, upon which the pages of the manuscripts were produced are of respectable quality, having both a smooth and a “hair side.” The historian Kathleen Hughes believes that the scribe was experienced and was heavily influenced by local Pictish carved stones but was working in a provincial scriptorium in Scotland without any finely illuminated book for him to copy.
I sometimes drift into a delicious fantasy of a medieval candlelit morning, sipping strong tea, waiting for the Highlands sun to rise and brighten my scriptorium as I lean in to illuminate a page with my personal art. And then I realize I am in my own sunrise kitchen, transforming the art in my head onto a canvas with my palette of flour, butter, spices and sugar. These meditations of circles, spiced tea, yellow and pinkish brown, and the warmth of sunrise morphed into these Chai Tea Rolls filled with a buttery paste of fragrant spices and glazed with honey and cinnamon. Circles within circles. Without end.
Chai Brioche Rolls
Two dozen rolls
One recipe “Professor Butter Beard’s Brioche” (easily searched on this site)
For the filling:
1 ½ cups dark brown sugar
½ cup all-purpose flour
2 Tbsp ground ginger
1 Tbsp ground cardamom
1 Tbsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp freshly ground black pepper
1 tsp fine sea salt
12 Tbsp unsalted butter (1 ½ sticks), melted and slightly cooled
1 Tbsp water
For the glaze:
½ cup water
½ cup honey
1 cinnamon stick
1) Prepare the brioche dough and complete the next steps when the dough is halfway through its first rise.
2) For the filling: whisk together the brown sugar, the spices, salt and pepper. Add the melted butter and the water and stir until well combined and rather pasty.
3) Line two muffin tins with paper liners.
4) One the dough is fully risen, turn it out onto a clean surface and divide in half. Roll the first half into a 12x20 inch rectangle. Spread half the filling on the dough all the way to the edge of three sides, leaving a 1-inch border on one long side. Roll the dough, jelly-roll fashion, and seal the edges. Score the dough roll into twelve portions and then slice into rounds using dental floss. (Believe me – it is the cleanest way!)
5) Please each roll into a liner in the muffin tin. Cover the tins loosely with plastic wrap and let rise again while your oven heats to 350 degrees.
6) Bake one tin at a time for 20-25 minutes until the tops are golden and firm to the touch.
7) While the rolls bake, make the glaze. In a small saucepan, whisk together the water and honey. Add the cinnamon stick. Bring to a simmer over a low heat and let cook/reduce for 5 minutes to slightly thicken.
8) When you remove the rolls from the oven, let them cool for five minutes and then brush the tops with the glaze. Let the rolls cool another ten minutes before removing them from their pans.
