Easy Recipe for Traditional English Eccles Cakes
Delicious Rounds of Pastry Stuffed with Currants, Sugar and Spice
Mar 1, 2009
Eccles cakes are not really cakes at all but delicious little sweet pies stuffed with currants. They are named after a small town outside Manchester in England. The history of Eccles cakes is something of a mystery.
Traditional English Food
The original recipe was for something called “sweet patties” and this is recorded by Elizabeth Raffald in 1679. She was the owner of a confectioner’s shop in Cheshire, some distance from Eccles. Elizabeth Raffald was also the author of a bestselling cookery book, The Experienced English Housekeeper . Somebody – nobody knows who it was, started making these sweet patties in his or her home town of Eccles, and from then on they were known as Eccles Cakes.
Like other traditional English food, such as Bread and Butter Pudding, Eccles Cakes are easy to make, rich and filling. They are delicious served with a hot cup of tea.
Eccles cakes are usually round, the size of a large cookie, and made with puff pastry. This easy recipe makes about 20 Eccles Cakes. Store bought pastry can be used.
Eccles Cakes Recipe:
Ingredients
Pastry:
- 2 ½ cups plain white flour
- 1 cup softened butter
- 1 egg
- Pinch of salt
- 1 tablespoon lemon juice
- very cold water
Filling:
- 1 cup dried currants
- ¼ cup soft brown sugar
- 2 tbs softened butter
- Pinch nutmeg
- milk for glazing
- white sugar for sprinkling
Method
Pastry:
- Mix together flour and salt.
- Rub in butter to make a mixture that looks like breadcrumbs.
- Beat egg and add lemon juice and enough cold water to make up half a cup of liquid.
- Mix well.
- Stir a little of the liquid into the flour mixture until it becomes a rather sticky dough. You may not need all the liquid.
- Wrap in cling film and chill in the fridge for at least 2 hours.
Filling:
- Place currants in a bowl and cover with boiling water for 5 minutes.
- Drain currants and put to one side.
- Cream butter with sugar and add currants.
- Stir in nutmeg.
Put it together:
- Remove pastry from fridge and roll out quite thickly, about 1/8 inch (8mms).
- Use a 3 ½ inch (9cms) cookie cutter or a glass, and cut rounds.
- Place 2 generous teaspoons of filling in the middle of the round of pastry, and bring up edges to make a little pouch. Pinch to seal. Don’t worry about it being untidy.
- Turn it over and flatten gently with fingers or a rolling pin to make a round cake. The sealed bit will now be underneath.
- Place on a baking sheet. Repeat with remaining rounds of pastry.
- Brush with milk and sprinkle with sugar.
- With a knife or scissors, gently make 2 cuts in the top of each cake to allow the steam to escape.
- Bake at 220 C / 425 F for about 10 minutes or until they are golden brown.
- Allow to cool on a wire rack.
Variations:
- Add candied peel, grated orange zest or dried apple.
- Add allspice to the nutmeg.
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