Jumble (cookie)
Jumbles are simple butter cookies made with a basic recipe of flour, sugar, eggs, and butter. They can be flavored with vanilla, anise, or caraway seed used for flavoring, or other flavoring can be used like almond. They were formerly often made in the form of rings or rolls.
Buttermilk jumbles | |
| Alternative names | Jumballs, Jambles, jingles, jumbals, jumbolls, jumbolds, jumballs, dimples, jumblins', jambal, gimples, jimples, sugar-bundles, gongles, jemelloe, gemmel, jungles, butter-bumbles |
|---|---|
| Type | Cookie |
| Main ingredients | Flour, eggs, sugar, butter |
| Variations | Almond, coconut, nutmeg |
Jumbles were widespread, specifically because they travelled well, thanks to their very dense, hard nature. They could be stored for up to a year without becoming too stale. Because of their density, they were sometimes twisted into knots before baking, in order to make them easier to eat, generating knots as another common name.
Jumbles were traditionally shaped in intricate loop or knot patterns, usually of rolled out dough. Early flavouring agents were aniseed, coriander, caraway seeds and rosewater. Later, especially in the United States, jumbles referred to a thin crisp cake or cookie using lemon-peel as a flavoring agent.