Many types of fritters appear in Medieval and Renaissance cookbooks and where they do not appear as recipes, they are often mentioned in menus and other sources. This dish comes from Libro di cucina/Libro per cuoco known as the Anonimo Veneziana. This is an Italian text from the late 14th or early 15th century. (English translation of the transcription by Ludovico Frati below.)

1/2 cup almond milk at room temperature or warmed to temperature for proofing yeast
1/2 teaspoon dry yeast
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/8 cup flour approx (texture of batter should be thicker than pancake batter but not as thick as bread dough)
oil for frying (a light olive oil will be more correct but vegetable oil is fine)
powdered sugar for garnish

Combine milk and yeast and let yeast soften until milk has a slightly puffy appearance. Stir in flour and salt.  Let set, covered, until doubled in bulk.

Heat oil in pot (be careful of splatters as they can cause burns)
Drop batter by spoonfuls into hot oil. Fry until puffs float and are golden brown, turn to fry other side if needed.

Drain on paper and dust with powdered sugar. Makes 12 - 15 fritters serve immediately.

We did this the first time with vegetable oil, but olive oil is likely more correct. This is likely a fast day recipe or is suitable for it when fried in oil. Could also be done in lard but that will make it a feast day item.

XXVIII White Fritters
To make White Fritters. Take Almond milk and leaven (yeast) add flour and blend them together and leave to raise, then make fritters, When they are cooked powder them with sugar and they are good.

I have used the English Translation by Helewyse de Birkestaf, OL (MKA Louise Smithson). This was previously available on line but I am unable to access it at this time.

A few words on Powdered Sugar

Medieval Sugar was sold in large cones and needed to be broken down to the proper consistency to be used. Sugar snips were used to cut off chunks and the sugar was further broken down with a grater or a mortar and pestle. This sounds like an arduous task, however, the cone sugar we have been able to acquire breaks down quite quickly and only a few moments of grinding produced a lovely finely powdered sugar with a taste that was more than just a vague sweetness. .

Commercial powered, or confectioner's sugar usually contains stabilizers such as corn starch to help keep the sugar from clumping, which also changes the taste.  I'd urge you to try hand ground sugar for this recipe or any other calling for powdered sugar.

More Fritter Recipes

• Apple Fritters
• Apple Puffs
• Apple Pillows
• Cherry Puffs
• Dulcamine
• Frytours of Mylke
• Imperial Fritters 
• Puffed Apples

Other Recipes from this Manuscript

• Armored Turnips 
• Imperial Fritters
• Ravioli
• Sweet and Sour Sauce for Pork

More Italian Recipes

• Dulcamine 
• Ofella  
• Onions in Sauce 
• White Torte

.

This recipe was published in the Dragons Laire Culinary Guild Booklet; "A Small Selection of Cheese Recipes from Medieval and Renaissance Sources"

Other recipes featured in this booklet on this site include

• Frytours of Mylke
• Genovese Tart
• Imperial Fritters
• Ofella
• Ravioli
• White Torte