biscuits (punch) , or toasted biscuits, were a baked good historically served floating in communal drinks, such as punch, or presented on the side as an individual-serving alcohol-infused cake. An account of Admiral Edward Russell’s famous fountain punch of 1694 documents that three hundred toasted biscuits were among the ingredients. These may have been traditional double-baked flour-and-water sea biscuits, but a more likely candidate is what the Dictionaire Oeconomique (1718) refers to as a “Common Bisket,” a combination of eggs, sugar, and flour beaten into a white paste and baked in molds. Variations on this recipe date from the late sixteenth century to the twentieth century, including Auguste Escoffier’s punch biscuit paste. While recipes differ on the incorporation of beaten egg whites, most agree on the inclusion of some sort of flavoring, such as citrus zest, aniseed, or rose water, and on double-baking the biscuits, as with biscotti or the aforementioned sea biscuits. In use, punch biscuits both exchange flavors with the punch in which they are placed and absorb the punch, ultimately producing a dessert akin to a rum cake.
See also
Chomel, Noel. Dictionaire Oeconomique or, The Family Dictionary. Edited and translated by R. Bradley. London: D. Midwinter, 1725.
Escoffier, Auguste. A Guide to Modern Cookery. London: William Heinemann, 1907.
May, Robert. The Accomplisht Cook, 5th ed. London: Obadiah Blagrave, 1685.
By: David Solmonson