Eccles Cakes
Here as promised, the recipe for this family favourite, for readers who have asked for it and for my cousin Wendy.
Ingredients
- 50g soft brown sugar
- 50g butter
- 1/2 teasp cinnamon
- 1/2 teasp mixed spice
- 100g currants
- 50g mixed candied peel
- 1 egg white, beaten
- caster sugar
How to do it
- Gently melt the butter and sugar together.
- Add the spices and the fruit and mix well
- Allow to cool.
- Unroll the ready rolled puff pastry (or make your own!) Time to put the oven on at 220C/425F/Gas7.
- Using a 10 cm cutter, cut as many circles as you can.You could go to 15 cms if you’d like fewer but bigger Eccles cakes.
- Have the egg white and water handy at this point. (Save the egg yolk for breakfast as I did)
- Paint all round the edge of the circle with water to enable the pastry to stick together later.
- Put a dollop of cooled fruity mixture in the middle of the circle and pull the edges together carefully making sure it has all stuck.
- Turn over the little parcel and put it on a baking tray, roll gently with a rolling pin to show the filling and slash 2 or 3 times to let the steam out..
Rolled to show currants
Slashed to let the steam out - Do the same with all your circles. Beat the egg white and paint over the tops. Then sprinkle them all with caster sugar.
- Bake in the pre-heated oven for 10 – 15 minutes until golden and bubbling. Leave just a few moments before lifting carefully onto a cooling tray to cool completely. Scraps of pastry have all been rolled with cheese to make tasty little snacks that don’t last long.
I rolled these too thinly but they still tasted good. See next photo for neater ones. 🙂
A bit fiddly perhaps but so well worth it, especially with a very appreciative lover of Eccles Cakes.
