Eccles Cakes

An Eccles cake is a small round (roundish) pie, similar to a turnover, filled with currants and raisins, made from flaky pastry and sometimes topped with brown sugar. It originated in Eccles, England. 

Recently, the receptionist at my physiotherapist's office upon overhearing a group of arthritis-stricken people talking about this pastry, ran breathlessly into the room to ask about a potential source. 

To be honest, there are a few things that should be left to old-timey bakeshops to produce. However, old-timey bakeshops are few and far between in my neck of the woods. So if needs must, you make your own Eccles cakes.  

And just to be clear, these things are not cake-like at all.

Ingredients:

• 6 tablespoons 

  unsalted butter

• 1 

  cinnamon stick

• 1 teaspoon 

  ground nutmeg

• 1/2 teaspoon 

  ground cloves

• zest from a lemon
• zest from an orange
• 2 cups 

  dried currants

• 1/2 cup 

  golden raisins

• 2 tablespoons 

  brandy

• 1/4 cup 

  fresh-squeezed lemon juice ( I just used the juice from 1 lemon)

• a package of puff pastry

• 1 egg beaten

• coarse sugar

Methods:

1. Melt the butter in a small saucepan over medium heat. Add the spices and peel and fry until they are fragrant in the butter. Add the fruit, brandy, and juice. Simmer for ten or fifteen minutes, stirring occasionally. Cool and refrigerate overnight to let the flavours really meld.

1. Heat the oven to 375°F. Line a couple of baking sheets with parchment paper.  Roll the puff pastry to a thickness of about 1/8-inch.

2. Cut circles in the pastry. You will have to determine how large you want your Eccles cakes to be. A 4-inch circle will make a quite small finished product. I prefer bigger Eccles cakes. Put a dollop of filling in the center of each dough circle. 

   Fold in half, like a potsticker dumpling, and seal the edges with your fingers. Bring the two pointy edges up and fold them in the center, on the curved seam. Flatten out the pouch with your fingers, and roll it into a circle - just thin enough that the filling shows through the dough a little. Try not to let it leak out. Make two or three shallow slashes in the top. 

3. Brush each pastry with beaten egg, and sprinkle with sugar. 

4. Bake for about 20 minutes, or until golden brown and puffy. 

5.