If you’ve never heard of A’souling or soul cakes, you’re not alone. It’s a particularly Catholic and English tradition that began to fade away during the reign of King Henry VIII.
This tradition is based around three important days designated by the Catholic Church. Those days are October 31 (Halloween aka All Hallows Eve), November 1 (All Saints Day), and November 2 (All Souls Day). Hallow is an old English word that means blessed (adjective) or saint (noun). All Hallow’s Eve was considered the night when the veil between the living and the dead was the thinnest and some believed that spirits could cross over into the land of the living. So people dressed up to confuse these wandering souls and they carried lanterns made from hallowed-out turnips, or built huge bonfires, to guide these souls back to the other side.
The next day was All Saints Day, a day set aside with fasting and prayer to honor those who’d been martyred for the faith. And November second was a day set aside with fasting and prayer to honor our loved ones who’d already died. Particular attention was paid to helping those souls still in purgatory receive their release into Heaven.
So what do these three days have to do with cakes? Well, during the middle ages (and even earlier), poor people would sit by the side of roads begging for food while church processions walked by. The ecclesiastical processions, where mourners prayed and chanted, began on All Hallows Eve and ended the night of November 2nd. In exchange for food or money, these beggars would pray for the dead. And on All Souls Day, they were given specially baked soul cakes. For each cake eaten, one soul would be released from purgatory. In more rural areas, the poor would go door-to-door, offering prayers and singing hymns in return for soul cakes. This practice, known as A’Souling, is the precursor to our modern day trick-or-treating.
The traditional soul cake was a cross between a biscuit and a shortbread cookie filled with currants or raisins–kind of like a cookie/scone. When I began making these for my kids, I soon learned that they hated currants and raisins. But they did love peanut butter cookies. So I developed my own, more modern version of soul cakes. A shortbread PB& J version, to be exact. This recipe for soul cakes is two shortbread peanut butter cookies held together with a center of raspberry or blackberry jam, both of which have their own spooky ties to this season.
Regardless how you celebrate Halloween, everyone loves getting a cookie. And I hope you enjoy my version of A’Souling Cakes.
A’Souling Cakes
Ingredients
Cookies
- 1 1/4 cups flour
- 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1 stick unsalted butter softened
- 1/2 cup packed light brown sugar
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 1/2 cup creamy peanut butter
- 1 large egg
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
For filling:
- 2 Tablespoons unsalted butter softened
- 1/4 cup creamy peanut butter
- 1 1/2 cups powdered sugar
- 2 Tablespoons cream or milk
- 1/3 cup blackberry jam
Instructions
Cookies
-
Preheat the oven to 350℉. Line a baking sheet with parchment and set aside. Adjust the oven rack to the middle of the oven as you'll be baking these cookies one tray at a time.
-
In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Set aside.
-
In a large bowl with an electric mixer, cream together the butter and peanut butter until smooth and creamy. Mix in the sugar until well combined. Beat in the egg and vanilla and beat until just combined.
-
Gradually beat the dry ingredients into the peanut butter batter until just combined.
-
Use a spoon or small scoop and drop 1" balls of dough onto the baking sheet. Bake for 10-12 minutes. You don't want the cookies fully baked, but need to be soft in the middle with the edges a light golden brown. Cool the sheet on a baking rack for two minutes. Then transfer the cookies to a baking rack and bake the next round of cookies. Repeat until all the batter is used. You should end up with 24 cookies–or at least an equal amount of cookies.
Filling
-
In a large bowl and using and electric mixer, beat the peanut butter and butter together. Beat in the confectioner's sugar until the batter is dry and crumbly. Add the cream on Tablespoon at a time. This will be a thick batter but you can add more cream if you need to.
-
Spread a thin layer of the peanut butter filling on the back sides of 12 cookies. Spread a layer of blackberry jam on the back sides of the remaining 12 cookies. Then make sandwiches with the filling cookies and the jam cookies, 1 per sandwich. Squish the cookies so the jam appears around the cookie edges.
