Libum: The cake that wasn’t a cake
On a cold Monday afternoon, it seemed the perfect time for baking. With just a few friends and even fewer ingredients, we embarked on a journey to create a simple dessert from Roman cuisine. Luckily, unlike the Romans, we were able to get the ingredients from a grocery store and bake the Libum in a gas oven…albeit an HC apartment oven with no handle. We first used a recipe from the BBC website, but after reading some other students’ Libum-making experiences, we realized we should consult multiple sources to ensure we had a cooking time, and the right amount of flour. We ended up using about quadruple what the original recipe suggested, which I think ended up being a good call. Our final dough (flour, ricotta, and 1 egg) was sticky, but not so much that we couldn’t form it into two balls and feel good about the shape and texture.
I think our final product was a great success! While definitely not a “cheesecake” in the way we’d typically expect, it was a tasty little treat. The texture was fairly light, but the outside was golden brown and crunchy enough to make an enjoyable eating experience. We scored them about 3/4 of the way through the cooking process, resulting in what I think were very aesthetically pleasing cakes. We used watered-down honey (as per the recipe) which I was a little skeptical about, and was probably the least visually pleasing aspect of the whole affair. Yet the extra sweetness from the honey made the dish, and without it the Libum would have been a fairly bland bread-like dessert. We also added some cut up mangos (another benefit to our non-Roman existence), which were a good pairing with the honey and cheesecake. I would definitely make this again, especially because of how easy it was. I was a huge fan of the texture, and this would be a good dessert to try a bunch of variations on. Maybe in the future if I make this again, I could add different fruits or spices that would have been around Italy during this time, and imagine what real Romans might have done with this dish.
