Monday 4 September 2017

End of Summer + Full Moon (Esbat) Biscuits

We've now come to the end of summer and are moving into autumn (in the Northern Hemisphere). Summer is my favourite season so I've tried to enjoy it this year. (I have anxiety and that often gets in the way of things). I enjoyed some summer drinks this year, including iced coffee and Costa Coffee's new Mint Choc Chip Frostino.

We had some lovely weather at the beginning of the summer here in the UK, then quite a lot of rain. But it got hotter again recently. These last few days it's been feeling more like autumn though! We've had Lammas and the next sabbat will be Madron, which I'm thinking of baking Bara brith for.

Last year I had car problems so didn't get to the beach much, but this year I've been several times. I thought I'd share some pictures I took at Shoreham and Worthing beaches recently. :)


Sunset on Shoreham Beach.




Worthing Beach.


Another Worthing Beach pic.

Hope you like them! :)



Esbat/Full Moon Biscuits

Also in my Lammas post last month I mentioned I was planning to make Full Moon/Esbat biscuits, using a recipe from Kate West's book The Real Witches' Kitchen. They're called Esbat biscuits because an Esbat is a monthly celebration based around the moon (most often the full moon but sometimes the new moon as well), similar to the seasonal sabbats. Wiccans and pagans in covens get together at this time and celebrate. I'm not in a coven but since I like to celebrate the sabbats I thought it would be good to have a go at making Esbat biscuits. Witches use them as part of the Rite of Wine and Cakes (or Cakes and Ale) but you can just bake them and eat them, like I did!

I made them last month and they were quite nice and easy to make. Since there's another full moon coming up in a couple of days I decided to post about them today.


Note: I'm referring to British biscuits which Americans call cookies, rather than American type biscuits. :)

They're quite simple to make because they only have caster sugar, butter and plain flour in. You make some dough and roll it out like with gingerbread. Here is the recipe for the Simple Esbat Biscuits which I baked: https://www.tapatalk.com/groups/solitarywitch/esbat-biscuits-cookies-to-make-with-children-t307.html

And here's the Rich Esbat Biscuits: http://walkingthepaganpath.blogspot.com/2014/05/kitchen-witchery-esbat-biscuits.html

 

Here's a pic of mine. I cut them into both crescent and fuller moon shapes and sprinkled sugar on the top.



I hope you like the biscuits if you decide to make them. Happy Full Moon! :)




P.S. I'm taking part in Honest Mum's Brillant Blog Posts link-up. :)



Brilliant blog posts on HonestMum.com

4 comments:

  1. this is a brillian post for sure, offers something to think about during the changes seasons thanks for sharing
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    1. Thank you for your comment. Glad you liked the post. Will check out your blog. :)

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  2. I've just recently begun to learn so much more about the moon and it's utterly fascinating. I love that you made your biscuits in the shapes of different moon phases! #brilliantblogposts

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    1. Hi Carol, thanks for commenting. :)I've been learning more about the moon lately too. Glad you like the biscuits! :)

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