Professor Butter Beard’s “Golden Coins of Sutton Hoo”
I have always been fascinated by buried treasure. My childhood home in Ohio was backed by acres of forest and swampland. I would spend hours in those woods with my friend Jodi constructing castles of fallen limbs and stacked stones and burying treasures of pennies and other found (or borrowed) objects. We would create detailed treasure maps with the hope that we would one day return and re-discover our priceless hordes. I now wonder if my grandmother had any idea how all her thimbles and silver tea spoons disappeared.
In 1939, Basil Brown, a self-taught archeologist and astronomer, began to excavate the eighteen ancient mounds found on the Sutton Hoo estate in southeast Suffolk, England. Within one, he unearthed the imprint of an 89-foot-long burial ship dating back to the Anglo-Saxon period (the period between Roman rule and the Norman invasion in 1066). Although practically none of the original timber survived, the form of the ship was perfectly preserved. Both the timber and the body of the buried king had dissolved long ago due the acidic soil, but what did remain was the exquisite gold treasure.
Laying beside the indentation of what could have been the burial coffin was a full helmet in shattered pieces, a sword harness and scabbard mounts and striking gold and garnet objects including an intricate belt buckle, a set of animal-style should clasps and an ornamental purse-lid, meant to cover a lost leather pouch, hung from the waist-belt. The missing pouch may have held the 37 stamped gold coins, three blank coins and two small ingots (small masses of gold cast in a convenient form for later shaping, remelting or refining) found together next to where a king was laid for his final rest.
Each of the 37 coins came from a different mint in Francia, across the English Channel, and they provide key evidence for the date of the early seventh century burial. Based on this evidence, historians now believe this may have been the burial site of King Rædwald of East Anglia, an Anglo-Saxon kingdom which included the present-day English counties of Norfolk and Suffolk. One romantic theory from historian Norman Scarfe suggests that the coins may have been the 'blood money' offered by Aethelferth of Northumbria in his attempt to bribe Rædwald to murder Eadwine (Edwin) of Northumbria in 617.
These exceptional coins inspired my holiday baking this year. My rosemary shortbreads are embossed by pressing them to create snowflake designs and then baking them after a swipe of egg wash and a sanding sugar sprinkle to make them reflect the light like a golden coin. Enjoy, and promise me that you won’t tell Gramma Mac what happened to her tea spoons!
Pressed Rosemary Shortbreads
2 Dozen 3” Round Shortbreads (perfect with tea or coffee)
Ingredients:
3 cups all-purpose flour
2 Tbsp cornstarch
1 tsp table salt
8 ounces unsalted butter, at room temperature
½ cup white sugar
½ cup confection sugar
3 Tbsp roughly chopped fresh rosemary leaves (usually 2-3 sprigs)
1 tsp vanilla paste (you can substitute vanilla extract, if you prefer)
2 eggs (used for separate purposes)
Sanding sugar (I used green for the holidays)
1) Whisk together the flour, cornstarch and salt and set aside.
2) Roughly chop the 2 or 3 sprigs of fresh rosemary – you want a total of about 3 Tbsp. My general rule is that 1 Tbsp of chopped rosemary will flavor 1 cup of flour.
3) Cream together the butter and two sugars until light and fluffy. This should take about 3-4 minutes
4) Add the chopped rosemary to the creamed butter and mix in thoroughly. This will disperse the leaves and their oil into the butter.
5) Add one egg and the vanilla paste and mix in thoroughly. Then, with the mixer on low, add the dry mix to combine. This will be a soft dough.
6) Divide the dough in half. Flatten each half into a one-inch disk and wrap each in cling wrap and chill at least two hours.
7) Preheat your oven to 350 degrees and line two baking pans with parchment.
8) Roll the first disk to a thickness of ¼ inch. Dip your cookie stamp in flour and shake off any excess. Stamp the dough with as many rounds as will fit, re-flouring the stamp as necessary. Using a 3” biscuit cutter, cut out each round and carefully place each cookie on the parchment-lined pan. Re-roll the dough only once and stamp and cut again. Each disk of dough should give you a dozen cookies.
9) Whisk together the remaining egg with 1 Tbsp of water and brush the tops of each cookie. Sprinkle with white sugar or colored sanding sugar.
10) Bake the cookies for 10-12 minutes, rotating the trays halfway through.
11) Let the cookies cool on the pan 10 minutes and then move them to a wire rack to cool completely.
