How to bake Eccles Cakes.

Thursday, January 30, 2014

So over the weekend I caught up on the Great Sport Relief Bake Off, and as part of one of the episodes they made Eccles cakes, now either my memory failed me or I have never had these brilliant baked goods. So to entertain my curiosity of this baked treat I made some using my mum's trusty Delia Smith cookery book and adapted the recipe to the allsortment of ingredients in out house at the time...

Ingredients:
For the Quick Flaky Pastry:
255g plain flour
175g butter
a pinch of salt

For the Filling:
75g butter
150g demerara sugar
150g currants
1tsp of cinnamon or more in my case

Method:

To make the pastry, weigh the butter, then wrap it in a piece of foil and freeze it for 30 minutes.
Then sift the flour and salt into a bowl.
Remove the butter from the freezer, and grate it in to the flour and salt. Stir/cut it in with a knife.
Mix in a little cold water to create a dough, and chill in the fridge for 30minutes.
Pre-heat the oven to 220°C.
Now for the filling! Melt the butter and sugar together in a pan, then stir in the currants and cinnamon.
Roll out the pastry, and cut in to circles.
Place some of the filling in the middle of the circles and create parcels.
Make 3 slits in the top of the pastry and brush with milk and sprinkle with caster sugar.
Bake for 15minutes.
Eat with a cup of tea as with all baked goodies!